Two to three days a week at work is the best job/home lifestyle balance for career mums

THE secret to a happy family life is for mums to go to work for two to three days a week and no longer.

Making family life work for mums

THE secret to a happy family life is for mums to go to work - but for no longer than 24 hours a week.

Research covering 35,000 Australian families has found the "tipping point" of work/life balance is for women to work 15 to 24 hours or two to three days each week.

Australian Institute of Family Studies senior researcher Jennifer Baxter said women who worked these hours felt their job actually improved their time with their family and made them a better parent.

They are also most able to fit their work around their caring responsibilities.

When women work more than three days a week they risk creating an unhappy home, as they rush their family time and miss key family events.

"This is a bit of a tipping point. There needs to be enough hours that parents can see there are some benefits to the family, but not so many hours that work has a detrimental effect on their home life,'' Dr Baxter said.

"The longer women work, the less likely they are to see the positive impacts of their jobs as they're too busy feeling all the strains and pressures."

The AIFS research shows that women's positivity drops off significantly as the number of work hours increases, going into negative territory when work takes up more than 35 hours a week.

Relationships Australia (Qld) counsellor and educator Denise Reichenbach said trying to find the right mix of work and home was a constant challenge for mothers.

"For any mum, it is a constant feeling of not doing a good job in either area,'' she said.

"Women feel like they're missing out on seeing their kids when they're at work but when they're with their kids they feel they are not doing a good enough job at work. It is a big strain."

Brighton mum Cathy Hollis, 33, returned to work part-time after the birth of her son Matua, now 15 months.

She is trying to find the perfect work/life balance and spends four days in the office for Volare Recruitment, an employer she describes as "very supportive", and one day at home.

"When I returned to work I worked five days a week but it became a bit difficult. I wanted to spend time with my son and I felt like I was missing out a bit,'' she said.

"I now work four days a week, which is better but still a juggle. In a perfect world I would work less hours but my career is still important to me."

Mrs Hollis and husband Wiremu are expecting their second child in April.

She plans to reduce her work to three days a week in the office before going on maternity leave.

The AIFS data was obtained from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, a long-term research project following 10,000 children and their families.