The COVID-19 pandemic challenged parental resources pertinent to coping with lockdowns. The main objective of this work was to study parenting during the COVID-19 lockdown. Specifically at focus were parental behaviors concerning key domains for the family (daily routine, co-parenting, emotional experience, and support network) and changes related to the pandemic and associated with the parents’ employment statuses. An online survey was carried out through an ad hoc questionnaire where participants completed questions about their sociodemographic data and rated how much their family routines, their co-parenting relationship, their emotional experiences, and the support available in the family network varied on a 5-point scale. The participants included 1384 parents, of which 286 responded to open questions regarding impactful experiences during the lockdown. The results showed differences in daily routine, co-parenting, emotional experience, and support network according to the parents’ employment statuses. Between-group comparisons showed that at-home parents caring for children with governmental aids generally revealed more positive parenting behavior changes, while at-home parents who were teleworking reported more difficulties in parent-child activities and co-parenting. Furthermore, the content analysis of the data confirmed how important themes such as family dynamics, professional activities, and the relationship with the school community were throughout the participants’ accounts of gains and losses. Overall, parents’ employment statuses are associated with diverse experiences during lockdown. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of family resources and parental resilience, particularly during circumstances jeopardizing the ever-sensitive work-family balance.

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Mediation, a relatively new field in Portugal, has been contributing innovatively to professional practices, becoming increasingly attractive in various contexts of action. Taking into account the various fields of work, it is important to consider that mediation might be beneficial in collaborating the processes of promotion and protection of the families of children at social risk. Here, the mediation devices become a collaborative resource to be used with these families. The present work has been developed for nine months, as an integral part of the practical training curriculum of the Masters in Education programme, with specialization in Educational Mediation and Supervision of Professional Training. This practical training was developed at The Commission of Protection of Children and Youth, in a rural area in the North of Portugal. The methodology used is qualitative, through the development of a research-action, where the case study was the privileged method. Our aim is to present the several themes used with some of the families in the field of mediation. This form of intervention and monitoring is not commonly practiced in this organization. However, it is possible to motivate a successful transformation in these families. Mediation in these debilitated conditions assumes the function of stimulating the opportunity of creating more stable family environments, contributing to their successful phycho-social development. The success of the process is attributed to the families that participated in the mediation, with the goal that everyone emerges a winner.