Jobs, Careers and Families in the 21st century

The dramatic changes happening in business and industries will also change the nature of careers, families, education and childcare. Just as politicians and business leaders need to try to predict and manage these changes, individuals can also look at this evolving territory and decide how best to manage your lives within them.

The first thing to do is highlight and question the assumptions behind many decisions we make. Childhood is short, adult working lives are long.

A young adult beginning work could have 60 years of working life ahead of them. A focused line of taking minimal parental leave and needing high levels of childcare to keep your place in the workforce seems to be the accepted path for young parents. However, this path has little flexibility to allow for illness, disabilities, school holidays, schooling issues and the myriad of other challenges that families face.

The alternative isn't Dad going out to work and Mum stuck at home with the kids and losing her place on the corporate ladder. That may be one alternative but there are a lot of others.

Six decades provides a lot of scope for multiple careers, study periods, child-rearing periods, working from home, working part-time, self-employment, starting your own business. A couple can also share the changes, supporting each other while they take on different levels of responsibility according to circumstances, opportunities and phases in their family lives.

If you do need someone else to look after under 5's, there are also lots of options to choose from ranging from childcare centres to nannies, and extended family members to swap arrangements with friends, as well as  combinations of care arrangements.

How do you think family life will change over the next decade or two? What choices are available to you? Are you happy with your choices? Who do you think should pay for childcare? You can discuss this on the forum.

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