Caring alongside the work
Caring for children, parents or other loved ones changes the time, flexibility and attention available for medical writing, while paid work can also provide focus and satisfaction alongside caring.
Caring demands and available leave
A 2008 US account estimated that nearly 22 million workers cared for parents or loved ones, while AARP valued informal care at $350 billion in 2006. The practical costs could include travel and accommodation: one writer and two siblings travelled from California and Ohio to their father’s hospital in New Jersey, but none could sustain metropolitan hotel costs beyond a week. They also advocated for care when hospital staff did not respond. Knitting and frequent walks helped the writer cope, and her advice was to preserve daily pleasures while caring.
The writer used three employer-paid family-leave days and two vacation days; she described leave arrangements as varying by state and employer, with partial pay making leave unaffordable for some workers.
Caring only for parents or only for children can create problems similar to caring for both, despite the usual “sandwich generation” emphasis on simultaneous responsibilities.
Work schedules around children
School events, appointments and unexpected illness can interrupt working hours, while work completed early or late may remain invisible to colleagues. A freelance editor described rising at five for two weeks, including Saturdays, to honour client commitments while attending her son’s school events before a school holiday. In her experience, finite and interruptible hours encouraged efficiency: she wrote or edited before answering email and completed more despite spending less time at the computer. Self-employment allowed her to account for completed work rather than presence at a desk, and she hoped office managers would recognise that effort need not mean fixed desk hours.
A freelance father began his business with children aged four years and eleven months, keeping a playpen at his office doorway, taking breaks for feeding and delaying teleconferences when the children needed attention. Later he scheduled client work around school activities, telling clients he had a meeting, and recommended making family time during the day. His daughters initially remembered him as always working but, as working adults, came to appreciate the arrangement.
In a 2020 account, a writer with three young children worked in a regulatory consultancy’s international virtual office, combining calls around errands with evening document work, screen-shared presentations and writing during a toddler’s nap. Remote work, flexible hours and colleagues who respected her personal obligations enabled her to maintain a developing career, although she still found the combination challenging.
Professional work and changing care routines
Working parenthood can bring frustration and guilt even when children have supportive homes and care: one editor felt hurried school mornings left her giving too little time to her son, but recognised that full-time parenting would not necessarily solve the conflict. Hearing stay-at-home parents describe similar morning struggles helped her put those feelings in perspective.
The same editor had planned to work during her newborn’s naps, but seven weeks of near-constant crying left little time even to bathe. When a client offered work at four months, intellectual work felt welcome despite exhaustion; after arranging childcare, she resumed regular work as more clients approached her. Morning childcare and work followed by afternoons with her son became a satisfying routine.
When he entered full-day kindergarten, reduced shared time was difficult to adjust to, while clients and projects gave her days focus. She scheduled lunches with friends, a dance class and additional work, recognising that settling into the changed routine could take time.
A household sharing work space
During the 2020 lockdown, a communications manager with chronic illness found a relatively gentle transition to home working because her team already partly worked remotely, but being surrounded by her husband and two children throughout the day was exhausting as well as enjoyable. Family games, garden netball and online exercise were activities they shared, and she tried to maintain routines for work and family time.
Another writer and her husband used separate office zones, coordinated meetings more closely, planned lunch together and shared domestic work throughout the week. Entertaining their four-year-old remained difficult; activities included stories, songs, audio stories, reading, walks, imaginative parties, baking and household projects. Organisation, good nutrition, mindfulness, reading and staying informed without becoming overinformed helped her cope.