The Work-Life Equation

Paul Sullivan, a former New York Times columnist, embarked on a quest to build the leading platform for Lead Dads, challenging the traditional notion of what defines being a father and parent.

In this episode, you will learn how to:

1. Embrace fatherhood by breaking free from traditional gender roles
2. Discover balance in juggling work and caregiving tasks to become a modern dad
3. Redefine success in parenting through a new lens of work-life integration
4. Enhance your communication, teamwork, and self-care strategies for more purposeful parenting

Paul is the founder of The Company of Dads, the first platform dedicated to creating a community for Lead Dads. Its mission is to help Lead Dads feel less isolated and more confident that they have made the correct choice to take on the bulk of the parenting and family duties - or at the very least not embrace stereotypes around who does what at home.

As a Lead Dad himself, Paul understands intimately the joys, frustrations, isolation and reticence around talking about being a Lead Dad. It's a role that is growing in numbers but is far from normalized.

Before starting The Company of Dads in 2021, Paul wrote the Wealth Matters column in The New York Times for 13 years. He also created the Money Game column in GOLF Magazine.

"Lead with grace, dignity and compassion and empower the next generation to light the path for a brighter future."

Alanah Odoms is the first Black woman to lead the ACLU of Louisiana in its 65 year history. She is a civil rights leader, professional and spiritual support to countless activists, and a single mother to her daughter, Elan.

She taught her daughter to embrace her unique identity and to not be weighed down by the expectations of the world. Alanah believes in creating a pipeline of leadership for women, black people, and other marginalized individuals. She encourages her daughter to use her privilege to help others, and to use her light to light up the candles of others. In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. How can we use our resources to affect positive change in the world?
2. How can we create a world that our children can inherit that respects their identities?
3. How can we practice conscious leadership and empower our children to become the next generation of leaders?

Deborah Cox, a resilient mother of three, fearlessly jumps between the lily pads of opportunity to balance her own ambitions with her personal life as a mother and wife, despite the obstacles of a pandemic and the unexpected "no's" of life.

You will learn:

1. How have Deborah Cox and her family managed to create a balance between their values, principles, and professional lives?
2. How did Deborah Cox learn to embrace failure and use it as a source of motivation?

Deborah Cox is an award winning recording artist and Canadian Music Hall of Fame Inductee. She is a trailblazing international icon with a nearly three decade long career, and a dedicated mother of three who is committed to fighting back against marginalization and inequity.

After winning the lottery of life with a supportive family, Indra Nooyi, a trailblazing woman, must juggle her responsibilities as a mother and CEO while navigating the conflicting demands of power and humility.

You will learn:

1. How can working parents balance work and family responsibilities?
2. What strategies can be used to ensure success and overcome prejudices?
3. How can companies embrace and deploy the best talent from a diverse pool?

Indra Nooyi is an award-winning business leader, New York Times bestselling author, and the first woman of color and immigrant to run a Fortune 50 company. She is consistently ranked one of the world's 100 most powerful women.

Listen to The Work-Life Equation to hear candid conversations, stories, and strategies from corporate leaders, public figures, and everyday people who are putting the pieces together to make life work. Subscribe today! Learn more at https://brighthorizons.com/work-life-equation

It seems like forever ago: working parents dropping the kids at child care and then heading to work. Today those same parents ARE child care — and they're still going to work, just in the home office. We asked about strategies, trial and error, and generally, how it's going. Here's what parents told us.

World events shake all of us — parents and children alike. So how do you answer when your child asks, "Are we going to be okay?" On this bonus episode, we feature an important discussion from our podcast, "Teach. Play. Love." Bright Horizons early childhood education expert Rachel Robertson gives concrete advice on all of it — supporting your child through difficult times, giving calm, simple reassurances to tough questions, and using play time to help process and express feelings.

In 2014, the first Bright Horizons Modern Family Index surveyed mothers and fathers about working and parenting. They said it was hard. This year we asked again, and guess what? It's even harder. On this episode, Bright Horizons VP Jennifer Vena breaks down the key highlights and shares stories from working parents in the trenches — and the extremes parents are going to make work and family fit.

Four of our awesome Bright Horizons vice presidents talk very candidly about being working mothers and having high-powered careers. Listen again to this episode, as they reveal what's worked for them, what hasn't, and what they had to let go of to build the careers and the families they wanted.