This weekend my son turns 7 which shocks me a little. It feels like he was just born yesterday. When I went on maternity leave 12 years ago I fully planned to go back to work. I didn’t love my job but it was interesting and paid well. After my son was born I applied to return to work part-time and I was offered a job share which I wasn’t comfortable with so I left.
Instead I focussed on my new family and my daughter was born a little later. I threw myself into being a stay at home mum and went self-employed thanks to my blog.
As my children got older I thought about returning to work, mainly due to the lack of adult company. I even was offered a job but the hours were definitely not family-friendly and I turned it down. With both my children now at school full-time I have once again been trying to go back to work, albeit in a different field.
Working as a parent means different things to different people. You get lots of advice when you’re a new parent but only you will know what is right for you. I’m the first to admit I’ve never really planned my life out. I achieved what I wanted with my degrees, my marriage and my children and now I’m pretty happy to get a job and enjoy family life. Other people are a lot more ambitious and career focussed but that’s ok because we’re all different and there’s room for everyone.
Just because I’m ready to go back to the workplace doesn’t mean I’m finding it easy to get a job so I was interested to read Maternity Leavers by Soozi Baggs and see if it was useful.
Maternity Leavers (what to do about work now you’re a mum)
Maternity leave isn’t an obstacle to your career – it’s an opportunity to create the working life you’ve always wanted.
Becoming a mum is a life-changing experience, but it changes every life in a different way. Some of us can’t wait to get back to work, others can’t even face the thought of it. Some of us would love to be home as a full-time mum for the baby, toddler, and preschool years, and others are planning to start and grow a business in that time.
One thing we almost all have in common though, is the desire (or need) to make some sort of change to our working life – either to balance our new family responsibilities or because we feel differently about the work we do for a living.
Whatever your reasons, and whether you’re having your first baby or your tenth, maternity leave is the perfect time to reflect, regroup, and lay some foundations for a better family future.
This book will help you do that. With lots of ideas, practical advice, and stories from personal experience about returning to work, starting your own business, or being a full time mum; you can create your own unique approach to what to do about work now you’re a mum.
This is a really helpful book whether you’re expecting, a new mum or ready to go back to work. With chapters on returning to work full-time, flexible working, being a full-time mum, self-employment and doing something else, everything is covered in a practical way, drawing on the personal experiences of the author as well as case studies from other mums. The book ends with chapters on money and practicalities and mental and emotional headspace which I found really useful. Motherhood completely changed me as a person but also changed my outlook on life. I don’t want to spend hours commuting into London for a job, I’d much rather work local and pick my children up from school. This book has definitely helped me sort my head out a little and realise my choices are right for me.
Maternity Leavers by Soozi Baggs is available in paperback or as a ebook from Amazon and all good book shops. Disclosure – I was given a copy to review on my blog.
This sounds like a great book, I’ll have to remember it next time one of my friends is expecting.
The book sounds really useful.It is really hard to get the home/work balance right and there are not many employers that offer the flexibility of working hours either. Things really need to change to give women a chance to to return to work and still maintain their family life.