6. Learn How to Manage
From coordinating children’s activities to meal planning and grocery shopping, managing a family can be a full-time job. Luckily, family managers like Coree Parra are taking on a new job description that enables families to relax and just enjoy each other. “As the family manager, I monitor the family dynamics and the household to make sure everything runs smoothly,” says Parra, who graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in psychology. (She minored in family studies and human development.)
Duties like scheduling doctor appointments, ensuring bills are paid on time, aiding with homework, arranging flight and vacation accommodations, running errands, answering e-mails as well as a bevy of other tasks have made family managers integral in the day-to-day operations of single and/or working-parent households. “It’s really about observing what it is the family needs and what they don’t need, for the kids and [the parents],” Parra says.