Assignment

Choose ONE of these to discuss. Discuss kinds of planning and negotiations that may take place in order to help a dual-career family cope with the stresses.

Scenario 1: You and your spouse both hold very good jobs. Suddenly your spouse is asked to manage a branch office in a smaller city five hundred miles away. This is a fine opportunity, yet, because your work is specialized, there is little professional opportunity in your field in the smaller city. What do you do?

Scenario 2: You and your spouse are both leaving to drop your two-year-old at the day-care center and to commute to your respective jobs. This is a day of extensive meetings for each of you. Five minutes before you are to leave, your daughter declares "I am sick" and throws up. You feel her head and realize she is running a fever. What do you do?

Variation on Scenario 2: Role-play with an older child e.g., six or seven years old, who has his or her own opinion to add.

Scenario 3: You are a single parent and you are trying to get children to daycare, to school, prepare lunches for them to take, get to your own job. The children are not cooperating but you finally get them where they are supposed to be and you finally get to work. Suddenly, it is 5:00, time to leave, go pick up all the children, get home, do homework, eat dinner, get everyone in bed. Then, you need to get online to participate each day in your own classes you are taking. Needless to say, you are totally exhausted. Tell the class how you keep doing this over and over and over with no relief in sight. Every day is the same, you are it, and you are head of household. How do you do this?