Being a working mum is easy. That’s as long as someone is there to look after your children. You need to have your children in care, a nanny, a great set of relatives or a partner that shares parenting shifts to get through a day without abnormally high stress levels.
Often I am asked how I can run my business and take care of my children.
I can’t. At least not both at once. If I do try to simultaneously work and look after my two children, it will usually end in tears for all three of us. How can you focus on your business when your children are asking for something every 5 minutes? Mums are really hard on themselves. You can look at other working mothers and all you see is their highlight reel. You see the accolades, the well groomed woman, the achievements and the pictures of smiling children. You compare that to your real life and of course it seems harder.
I am guilty of only showing my highlight reel. But it’s not that easy. My children are in day care three days a week, and on those days, I work my butt off.
I come home too tired to clean, so my husband (who also works full time) does most of the daily cleaning. On the other days of the week, I work around my husband’s shift work and utilise babysitters to get as much done as humanly possible. I am a fabulous working mum when I am working, or being a mum, not doing both at once. There are some days where I am the ‘perfect woman’. The kids are happy with a nutritious made-from-scratch breakfast, lunch and dinner; I’ve got new clients and satisfied everyone’s needs and requests at the office; paid all the bills; had a decent conversation with my husband; called my Grandma and parents just to say hi; cleaned all the clothes; vacuumed; washed the dishes; gone to the gym for some exercise; completed the to do list (okay, that one never happens); and had a moment to myself for some meditation and reflection. No one can do that every single day. Why do we expect ourselves to?
