It’s not often an advert actually brings a tear to your eye, but this - from P & G’s Olympics campaign - just speaks to the parent in all of us.

For hardworking parents, it can be so hard to hit that balance between earning the money that pays for your kids’ after-school activities, and actually being there to cheer them on at the race, the performance, or the competition.

Here are four things you can do that will help:

1) Mobile Internet on Your Laptop: Stop squinting at your BlackBerry, and use your computer to work on the move. Modern smartphones will turn into a Wireless hub at the touch of a button, and most phone providers will chuck a 3G Dongle into your contract for as little $5 per month. 

2) Work in a third place: If your commute takes you in the wrong direction, but you can’t be productive with all the distractions at home, consider getting a Regus Businessworld Card. This gives you a great place to work, with all the WiFi, coffee, calm and space you need, in over 1200 locations.

3) Cut down the travel: If you’re flying across the country for a two hour meeting twice a week, your diary fills up very quickly. Video-conferencing has moved on since the days of grainy pictures and terrible sound: check that list of monthly and quarterly meetings, and see which ones would work just as well on a laptop screen or a video-conferencing suite.

4) Leave work early: Seriously. It’s not that hard. You don’t need to be in the office for that extra 20 minutes. Turn up in good time for the event, and then just get some work done sitting in the car. You’ll be just as productive, and you’ll save yourself from stumbling in just in time to miss the main event.