Appreciating and recognising all those who parent on Global Day of Parents 2021

The United Nations' Global Day of Parents is observed on 1 June as a celebration of parents and families all over the world. This year our Global Day of Parents theme is "All Those Who Parent", recognising all types of parenting, including adoption, surrogacy and fostering as well as acknowledging those who may have experienced fertility issues and baby loss.

Global Day of Parents provides an opportunity to appreciate all parents for their "selfless commitment to children and their lifelong sacrifice towards nurturing this relationship".

This past 12 months in particular have been tough for everyone, but it is no secret that parents have been severely impacted by the pandemic. As the anchors of the family, parents have been responsible for keeping their families from harm, caring for out-of-school children and, at the same time, continuing their work responsibilities. By supporting our employees with family-friendly policies and practices, Osborne Clarke aims to promote children's safety and wellbeing while helping our people be the great parents they want to be.

With that in mind, Partner Alison Riddle shares her experience of life as a Partner with young children and the support Osborne Clarke has given her.

The last year has been a challenge for so many. I know I am one of the lucky ones to have a healthy family and a steady job so pulling my hair out at the wifi crashing for the fifth time in an hour because of multiple home-schoolers seems trivial.

I have three primary school aged children and 2020 brought a collision of the two sides of my world, life as a busy transactional lawyer and life as a parent (and teacher!). This was the ultimate test of multi-tasking as I negotiated documents on a Teams call while cutting out art projects and printing work sheets off screen.

As with everything, Osborne Clarke approached this with a sense of humour. We posted photos of our home working set up on the intranet, embraced the world of zoom quizzes and booked entertainers for online children's parties. Ever since I started at Osborne Clarke six years ago, I have felt it was a firm which puts family first and really appreciates the challenge of being a working parent. I have always been honest with colleagues and clients about the limits of my day and they have appreciated the transparency.