The question of how to reconcile different life spheres is present in the everyday lives of working parents. Owing to digital developments, the overlap between paid work and other life domains has increased. We apply the capability approach and study perceived time- and strain-based work-life conflict (WLC) among 26 European countries and examine the (potentially gendered) influence of family policies, work culture and job-related characteristics on WLC. The data were from Round 10 of the European Social Survey, with 6605 parents. Cross-tabulation and multilevel analysis were used as the research methods. Both time- and strain-based WLC are prevalent among European parents, with some cross-national differences. Individual-level factors play a larger role in shaping parents’ WLC than family policy or country-level work culture. Various flexibility measures play different roles in mothers’ and fathers’ WLC. Hence, work flexibility can have diverse implications for parents’ ability to balance work with other life spheres.