# Q3 — Supporting working parents through the summer

- **Episode:** [203](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/203.md) (2025-06-05)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** working-parents, support, summer
- **Time:** 20:50–26:12 (start 1250s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/203?t=1250](https://truthliesandwork.com/203?t=1250)

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[20:50] Al Elliott: Okay, so the third question that comes up a lot is, how do leaders and managers and business owners deal with people with kids? Now, obviously, we don't have kids, very happily kid-free, but my sister and my brother and your sister and brother do. Yeah, so if you've got kids, you're kind of juggling childcare. It's probably more expensive time for you because the kids are off school, but you're not. Um, there's lots of stuff to think about. So, is there kind of something which a leader or manager can do to help people who have got kids? And the second question I've got, which I'll ask you later on, is, are we giving them special treatment if they've got kids compared to if they're not? But we'll come back to that in a second
[21:26] Leanne Elliott: I think, first of all, it is understanding, particularly if you're a business owner or a leader who doesn't have children, is having some empathy that summer is one of the hardest times of the year for, for parents and, and carers. Because you're trying to do your job, you're trying to organise childcare, you're trying to plan activities and cover, you know, the additional costs that, that your kids being off bring. And then also you're trying to be emotionally available and stable for those children all the time as well. So, it's a lot. As a mental load, it's really quite, really quite massive. So, I think for any leader, it's first of all empathising that the parents would probably prefer their kids to be in school too
[22:05] Al Elliott: To a certain extent, it's not just a question of actually doing all the stuff. You've kind of, you kind of got all this, all these questions and problems and concerns in your head already. Like, are the kids in childcare? Are they okay because they're not at school?
[22:19] Leanne Elliott: Yeah, exactly. It's what I mentioned about the mental load. It does go up when you've got these demanding priorities in more than one aspect of your life at once. And when it builds up without that support, then it will turn into stress. And as we know, prolonged stress results in burnout. What I think is good news for an organisation is there's so much opportunity here to do better. I was reading an article by Mind and was interviewing Kooth, who I think we've had somebody on the podcast before from Kooth
[22:48] Al Elliott: Yes, we have, I think
[22:49] Leanne Elliott: A platform that kind of offers support around this type of coordination of people and workforce. And it says something like, in the research they've done, half of working parents don't feel their workplace supports their needs. And only 1 in 4, oh sorry, and 1 in 4 have taken time off due to poor mental health as a result of this lack of support. Yeah, so it's really kind of a call to action, I think, for business owners to step up and kind of think, how can we support our parents and carers during this period?
[23:23] Al Elliott: So, talking of supporting, give us some practical steps. Give us something which leaders and owners and managers can actually do
[23:31] Leanne Elliott: Flexibility. And that is going back to your earlier question in terms of, are we giving people preferential treatment? No, because you should be offering everybody these things. It just happens that certain times of year is going to be more relevant to certain people, certain demographics in your workplace than others. So, can start times be adjusted? You know, can someone start a bit, a bit later and finish a bit later or split their working day? Remote working
[23:56] Al Elliott: Yeah
[23:57] Leanne Elliott: could be really helpful. It could be the exact opposite. It could be actually it's much more beneficial for the parent to come into the office on their workdays. Permission to step away for 20 minutes if, you know, something's going on with the children or something needs to be coordinated or handed over. And I think as well, it's understanding that it's not about a massive policy change. It's, as you said before, it's about trust. It's about making sure that people are still clear about what they have to deliver
[24:24] Al Elliott: Mm-hmm
[24:24] Leanne Elliott: what the expectations are and giving people the autonomy and flexibility within their working day to manage that through
[24:31] Al Elliott: Yeah, and I think as non-parents, like, we don't really work in a conventional office, but I'd imagine that if you weren't a parent, then you feel probably quite resentful if you're taking on the work of someone because they've got kids. And it's like, you know, it's, it just doesn't seem that fair
[24:47] Leanne Elliott: No, it doesn't, which is why it's so important that all of these policies are organisation-wide. It's so important we have those, those handovers and handbacks of what we— what is happening with email, so it's not one person actually picking up the work. This is all so much of an operational problem as it is a cultural problem. It's understanding that workflow and making sure that the same people aren't always picking up the, the extra work. And I think with that, in terms of culture, it's normalising that this is going to be the case for everybody at some point, whether they have You know, a health concern, depending on their religion, they might need different times off of the year that are a bit more unconventional than typical Western Christian calendars. It could be that somebody has a family member who is unwell, or their pet needs to go to the vet, or, you know, there's a whole host of reasons why people will need this flexibility and will benefit from a really robust operational process around annual leave. This is going to benefit everybody. If it's applied to everybody and it's an organisational-wide policy. So yeah, I think that's the thing. And I think finally with that, with any issue around individuals within the workplace, is what resources can you offer as an organisation in terms of signposting? What do you know about children's clubs that are happening? What do you know about reduced childcare or childcare vouchers, that type of thing? There's lots of different resources that you can use. Coth is one of them that—
[26:12] Al Elliott: Coth
[26:12] Leanne Elliott: That we mentioned. So, yeah, I think it's really looking at all your EAP programme, for example, actually what practical support could be in place for parents as well, and of course, training managers, so they're having these conversations ahead of time to understand what individual needs somebody is going to need moving into summer