Americans are working more and enjoy life less. As a result, fewer people are getting married, there are fewer children per family and, in 65 percent of those families, both partners held jobs outside the home.

        A PBS special, Juggling Work and Family, (9 p.m. Sunday, WCET 48 and KET, rebroadcast 9 p.m. Wednesday on KET2) is a two-hour documentary examining acute tensions between work and family. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith, the special takes a close look at the agonizing choices today's families must make between the dollar and the clock. Mr. Smith interviews several workers, employers and organizations on the challenge of balancing demanding jobs with the need to raise a family or look after aging parents.

        “These are tough issues that are troubling people nationwide,” says Mr. Smith. “Spending too much time on the job and too little with the family has become a chronic problem in America, and this problem is forcing its way onto the national agenda . . . People don't dare slight work for fear of losing their jobs, and so they squeeze their personal lives.”

        The host talks with workers from the entire employment spectrum, from problems with lawyers in Boston to hospital workers in New York and solutions from Baxter International in Chicago and Hewlett-Packard in San Francisco. Participating organizations include he Families and Work Institute, AFL-CIO, Mothers and More and the Third Path Institute.

        Solutions offered include flexible work schedules, job sharing, telecommuting, employer-provided day care centers or parental subsidies.

        PBS also has an accompanying Web site (www.pbs.org/workfamily) that features an interactive quiz, a working parent's survival guide and resources for employers.

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