[dchmiel]

I always thought of striving for balance as the wrong goal and that flexibility should be it.

Why not give workers flexibility to work when they are productive on work tasks and flexibility to focus on family when that is the most productive outcome. This could alleviate a lot of pressure that everyone feels with the need to balance work and life. What are we trying to balance? 3 hours a night with kids every night for 18 years doesn't mean you balanced your life.

Some people may want to drive their kid to school and then go into work focused. Then chooses to work out and take time to eat a healthy lunch and then work some more and then picks their kids up from school. Stay with them at home till the other spouse comes home and then switches into work mode while the kids are being fed and washed by the other spouse. Read to them a bedtime story and tuck them into bed before some more highly focused time to work again before going to bed at a time they find reasonable sounds good to some people.

Not all people but some. We just need the flexibility to choose to work when we're most productive and when don't feel guilty being away from the kids. How many here like wake up late but work late into the night boarding on the next morning, while others are up so early its still night for others?

We're not identical cogs as much as our education system and society, based upon the needs of the industrial revolution, tried to produce. Give people choice and you'll be rewarded with healthier, well adjusted and productive employees and families.