Not long after my second child was born I realised that something had to change work wise. I worked for a local authority in North Wales and including travelling time I was working around 48 hours per week. With no family living in this country I had to rely on nursery for my two children both under 2 ½ at the time. My day consisted of drop off at 8am, race to work, work all day (often racing from meeting to meeting), worrying about whether or not I was going to get out by 5.10pm to race back to nursery. If I got stuck behind a tractor I would arrive at nursery to find the nursery manager waiting outside with my children – the last to be collected. It broke my heart!
After completing my maternity leave after my second child, I intended to only return to my full time job for 3 months. Whilst on maternity leave I had set up my own limited company Strategic Consult & C with a view to working freelance as a consultant in the health and social care sector (strategic services). In May 2009 I left my job. This turned out to be perfect timing as the next month was spent looking after the children whilst they battled the chicken pox!
My day-to-day life now is very different … but is it less hectic? Goodness NO! It is way more hectic but I like it. I now have 3 main strings to my bow.
1) My consultancy business www.strategicconsult.co.uk
2) Business Mums Unite www.businessmumsunite.co.uk
3) Mummy Fever www.mummyfever.co.uk
I am also involved in fundraising for the Cheshire and North Wales Human Milk Bank, other charity projects and am TRYING to finish my family support book.
An average day involves ….
Responding to a few emails from the Blackberry (or raspberry as the children call it) first thing, followed by a school run. Then it’s a dash back home to try and cram as much work into 1h45 mins before back to school to collect my little boy. After that it is back home to get him some lunch. We will either go to the park, bounce on the trampoline, cook, watch a movie, read stories or play dressing up or Lego (sometimes all of this) before it is back to school for the third school run of the day to collect my daughter. After that it’s a quick change and food before her swimming lesson and then back home for baths, stories and bed – which they tend to string out as long as possible.
When they are settled the laptop comes out and work starts. This normally goes right through until 1am or 2am on a bad day and can involve a range of projects, emails, reviews, training feedback and reports.
Life is busy and hectic but I am confident this is the best option for my children. They love the fact I can take them to school, pick them up, go on school trips, to shows, to swimming lessons, dentist etc. – I just couldn’t do that in the job I did before!
After six weeks in my new business my daughter said “I love your new job mummy” – that was all I needed.
Found this useful wondering how you can show me your appreciation? Well, there are some ways you can say thanks and support my website: ➡
Always so nice to hear about other mums doing similar things! The lovely comments from your daughter are better than any bonus scheme you could be on in a regular job.
If only they could create a few more hours in the day so we could get a bit more sleep it would be perfect lol! ;o)