there's an intrusion into the home of technology and career. More people work from home, travel for work, and allow work intrusions (e.g., email, fax, instant message, cell phones, web searches, stock/site/news monitoring, online collaboration) into the home, and 65% of American families do not have a set "dinner time ritual". This makes time for intimacy and family harder to find, especially given that 50% of workers put in more than a 40 hour week, and about 20% work more than 50 hours.

However, at least these scheduling issues are discussed; the long-term plans, "personal chronologies," and deadlines for dreams often go unsaid. When business travel, long-distance relationships, and caring for elderly family members are added in, time can seem to slow down or speed up in sometime predictable but often unpredictable ways for most families. Imber-Black offers three myths couples have:
   1) We can have it all
   2) We can fit one more thing in if we tweak it
   3) We are in control of our time

Altering excessive work routines is one of Wallerstein's (and many others') suggested ways to stabilize family, along with paid family leave and better protection for those who are willing to take family leave, and tax breaks for parents who stay home to raise children. Levner offers we need to redefine the typical understanding we have of two-career couples (his work and her work) to a three-career couple (his work, her work, and managing a family).