Working Parent Dilemma: How to Balance the Responsibilities of Children and Careers

by Earl A. Grollman

Overview

Based on interviews with one thousand school-aged children whose parents were both employed outside the home, The Working Parent Dilemma provides valuable ideas and strategies for parents facing the challenge of combining career and family life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807027035
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	09/30/1988
Edition description:	REPRINT
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.55(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Earl A. Grollman, a pioneer in the field of crisis intervention, was rabbi of the Beth El Temple Center in Belmont, Massachusetts, for 36 years. A certified death educator and counselor, he was cited as "Hero of The Heartland" for his work with the families and volunteers of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Dr. Grollman has spoken at many colleges, clergy institutes, seminaries, physicians' forums, and hospital nursing associations, and has frequently addressed support groups such as The Compassionate Friends and Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He has also appeared on numerous national television and radio programs, including the Oprah Winfrey Show, Children's Journal, All Things Considered, and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. He was featured on National Public Radio's The End of Life: Exploring Death in America series in the roundtable discussion on grief and bereavement.

He is the author of several books including Living When a Loved One Has Died, Straight Talk about Death for Teenagers, and Living When a Young Friend Commits Suicide.

Editorial Reviews

fs4To discover how children of employed parents fare and what their attitudes are, Grollman (a Massachusetts rabbi, lecturer and writer on family issues) and Sweder (a child development specialist and teacher) interviewed 1000 youngsters from two-job families. While many children covered in this nationwide study recognize the economic need for two incomes and the easing of stress that extra money provides, others complain that they are lonely and afraid and that parents, especially fathers, neglect them and give them too much responsibility. The authors emphasize the importance of parents sharing work experience with children, and of close parent-school ties. Among the book's helpful suggestions, many relate to safety precautions at home and outside, criteria for care givers, TV watching, etc. Advice given here on how to prepare a child to be alone at home, which includes handling emergencies and illness, is most pertinent for millions of ``latch-key'' children. First serial to Working Woman. (February 15)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This book is based on interviews and written surveys of 1000 school-age children of working parents from a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds. Both positive and negative experiences are recounted. While the dilemma addressed by the authors seems to be how to keep work from intruding into family life, the direction of the book is to provide more guidelines for children in using their time while parents are at work. Lynette and Thomas Long's The Handbook for Latchkey Children and Their Parents ( LJ 8/83) is a better source on that score. Creative solutions are possible for the problems of balancing work and family life; they warrant a more thorough presentation. Hilma F. Cooper, Cheltenham Twp. Libs., Pa.

Library Journal