ABSTRACT

Case Story: Demands and Priorities During school holidays, Tony (in his early 40s) and his 8-year-old daughter Jess enjoy fishing for trout together in a dinghy on Tumut Ponds, just down from the town where Tony grew up. Tony used to go fishing here with his father and now shares his special place with his daughter. Tony loves spending one-on-one time with Jess. But to do so requires coordination of his paid employment, voluntary work and family time. A complex mosaic of flexible work hours, working from home, part-time work, paid leave, school holiday programs, and mutual child-minding arrangements with other families helps the family juggle the many competing demands of modern life. All of this is further complicated by the fact that Jess’s mother recently left her job to return to part-time study. Scrawled notes on the kitchen calendar bear testimony to the family’s hectic schedule.