My Family Care, the UK's number one provider of employee ‛backup care' benefits such as Emergency Childcare, has revealed dramatic findings from its annual Working Parents Survey.

The company surveyed working parents to investigate current attitudes in the professional environment, exploring key issues relating to a happy working life such as flexible working, childcare and eldercare. With a sample of 5000 this is the largest survey of working parents to date.

Ben Black, Managing Director of My Family Care states, "Fifteen years ago most women had a simple choice to make: be a mother or build a career. Employers didn't offer flexible working and didn't understand the pressure parent's faced. This has changed dramatically and the answer lies in the changing work ethic and attitudes of employers, with more and more employers offering flexible working and other benefits to parents."

Career and motherhood is still a juggle but working mothers report that employer support is better than ever and a work life balance increasingly possible. My Family Care found that 98% of working mothers want flexible working and would be loyal to an employer that supported them in this way. Black continues, "A high majority of companies are beginning to offer support in the form of flexible working, home working and back up childcare and eldercare options."

Of the working parents surveyed 69% reported that their managers supported them as working parents and understood the additional pressures they face trying to combine work and family. This combined with the legal right for mothers and fathers of children under 16 to request flexible working adds up to a more positive outlook for working parents. However almost 64% of working parents surveyed said that their childless colleagues were a lot less supportive of the juggle they face combining work and family.

The My Family Care Survey reported that 98% of working parents said that having quality childcare was a prerequisite for a happy working life. Working parents comprise a significant proportion of the workforce, over 40%, but women are having babies later, the average age of first time mothers is 30 and 93% of the working mothers surveyed were aged over 31.

Balancing work and family is still a challenge but the increased options available to parents are improving the situation. Discrimination at work still exists against working parents by fellow employees, however not by employers.