How Women Can Balance a Family and Career in Law

Women are under a lot of pressure today, and this pressure comes from others and themselves. And whether or not you choose to have kids, you likely receive a lot of advice on what you should be doing, both in your career and with your life. And the legal field already puts a lot of pressure on a woman to do whatever it takes to advance her career, even if it’s at the expense of other important relationships. However, even though many women leave the legal industry to begin their families, you can do both, and this is a great time to do so.

Simplify Your Finances

Even though a stereotype about lawyers is that they earn a lot of money, this is not always the case when just starting out. Between entry-level salaries and law school debt, it can be hard to feel like you are keeping ahead of things. The good news is that there are some ways you can keep your law school debt under control. For example, you might consider refinancing. If you want to know whether it is worthwhile to refinance law school loans, you can review a guide with more information.

Create a Schedule

Creating your family’s schedule can be a bit harder than managing a work calendar, but it is extremely helpful to come up with a schedule. As a parent, you need to plan what you can ahead of time for meals and kids’ activities. Put in the calendar where they need to be for class. This is a great learning opportunity for your kids as they get older because it can teach them how to be responsible for their own schedule, and it lets you enjoy some quality time together.

Make Time for Self-Care

Your time is precious when you are trying to balance work and personal obligations, but you can’t do it if you don’t take care of yourself. Getting enough rest and eating well can improve your mood and give you better quality of life. It’s also important to make time for exercise. For example, perhaps you can go for walks with your kids in the evenings or on the weekends. And you can also take breaks to stretch throughout the day.

Get Help When You Need it

It is okay to not be able to do it all by yourself. In fact, asking for help can help prevent burnout. Talk to your spouse about how you currently split up childcare and household tasks. For example, perhaps they can take care of your kids at certain portions of the day so you can focus only on work. Later on, you can switch so they can to the same thing. 

While it might stress you out to leave your child with another caretaker, doing so may be the best option at some point. You can choose from professional services, a family member, or a friend. The important thing is to evaluate areas of strengths and areas of weakness so you can do what you are good at.

Create Boundaries

Both you and your kids should have boundaries to respect each other’s space. For example, if you work from home, you may create a rule that you are not to be disturbed if your office door is closed. Give them a gentle reminder that they need to wait for your attention if they interrupt when you are working. This can help your kids learn to respect other people’s time.

However, you should also set boundaries within work, so your family has enough of your time. This can be hard to do in the legal field, especially if you have a deadline, but you can still be available for important things without allowing work to eat into all your family time. For example, you might set hours when you are unreachable by colleagues.