“Jamie Oliver admits he's happy being a 'weekend parent' who doesn’t see the children for five days - and says they're 'fine with it’ ”

I clicked on this article thinking 2 things…

1) It’s the Daily Mail - I’m sure to regret this.

2) I’m a bit sad for him if he is actually happy with not seeing his kids during the week.

What I found was something quite different…

‘I’m mainly a weekend parent – I will get to the key school events but I’m flat out Monday to Friday and normally see the children a couple of nights during the week. I’m happy with that, I think they are fine with it.’

This didn’t seem too bad to me.

He’s at key events and home a couple of nights a week - 2 out of 5 maybe?

I know there are other Dads out there that would kill for that sort of work life balance and flexibility and yet the Daily Mail portray his work life balance as some sort of failure.

One of the core principles in our 6 Steps to Working Dad Success programme is that communication is a vital part of Being a Great Dad AND Have a Great Career. As a family and definitely as a couple, you all need to be on the same page when it comes to work life balance.

⭐ So my top tip to Jamie Oliver is to make sure everyone is ok with it.

⭐ Make sure everyone’s needs are being met because I know that if you’re happy but your family isn’t, then you’re storing up trouble.

I’ll let ‘Toby’ tell you why.

“If there's one thing I wish we'd done better, it would have been to have those really honest discussions - rather than the more off-hand comments and observations - about the work life balance for both of us, including as a couple and as parents.
But hey - we live and learn, eh?!”

Toby and his wife are separated and to a large extent due to a failure to sort out their work life balance.