It is early Sunday evening, and Laura just walked in the door of the suburban home she shares with her husband, Alejandro, and their infant daughter, Kennedy. She has spent the last three full days attending MBA classes in downtown Philadelphia, while Alejandro spent the weekend as a solo dad. Laura is greeted by a quick kiss from Alejandro and Kennedy’s toothless smile and tiny arms reaching out for her. Laura willingly accepts the hand-off and immediately takes over the evening parenting shift, which includes Kennedy’s dinner, play time and bedtime story. After finishing the bedtime routine, Laura gives Kennedy a quick cuddle before laying her down in her crib and heading back downstairs to get snacks and bottles ready for daycare the next day. She passes Alejandro, who has been sitting at the kitchen table doing his own MBA schoolwork for the past few hours, and suggests an easy dinner. They eat together before heading to the couch. Side by side, Alejandro completes another school reading assignment while Laura catches up on emails she missed on Friday. Both yawning, they head to bed in preparation for work the next day.

Juggling life as two full-time working lawyers who are relatively new to the Philadelphia area, both pursuing master’s degrees, raising a daughter, and still trying to find time for themselves sometimes feels elusive. There are days when you feel on top of the world, days when you feel defeated and days with every variation of feelings in between. While we are by no means experts at navigating life’s demands and we continue to learn new tricks each day, we have found a few approaches that have been essential to helping us enjoy life beyond the every day tasks. In this article, we share approaches to encourage others in similar shoes to share methods that have, or have not, worked for them, and hopefully help anyone searching for ideas to navigate life’s responsibilities.