How parents are rethinking work-life balance amid the pandemic

It sounds like a plot from a Hollywood sitcom: A new mother decides to leave her lucrative job and, along with her husband and baby, moves in with her immigrant parents who are working to keep the family business afloat. But this isn’t a script. It’s a daring, dramatic life change Erika is currently considering with her husband, thanks to the pandemic.

Erika, who lives in Philadelphia, isn’t alone in radically readjusting her life around family due to COVID-19. From work to educational choices, parents around the country are singing a similar tune: “I always wanted to make a big change, but I was scared to try. When COVID-19 came, I simply had to make certain choices, and it turned out our family is so much happier.”

To be sure, the pandemic hasn’t been easy. The loss of employment, the loss of plans and of course the loss of health and life. But a silver lining of the prolonged pandemic might just be the way it rapidly reprioritized life choices toward the essentials — especially family.

Rachel and her husband live in St. Louis. They were balancing work and school when the pandemic hit. But suddenly they were forced into being at home with their infant son around the clock. They bonded in a way they never would have planned. She told me, “While I can’t control much of what’s going on in our country and world right now, I’m finding unexpected meaning in caring full time for my son and for our home.”