The concept of presenteeism is long established in the business world. Coined to refer to the practice of employees being on the clock but not mentally present, it has been tracked by HR departments for years. But a cousin of presenteeism has also crept further and further into the daily lives of likely millions of workers across the country — It’s time to talk about “parent presenteeism.”
What’s parent presenteeism? It’s the feeling that you aren’t being truly emotionally present for your children. It comes in the form of those misses that every parent experiences with their child from time to time: when you miss out on an evening to attend a work event; when your baby cries just as you need to hop on a meeting; or when you strategically skip over a few pages in the bedtime story book to speed things up so you can try to reclaim just a few minutes for yourself at the end of the day.
