OnePoland

I've read somewhere this simple statement :

"You manage because you must."

It encompasses everything you need to know about how to manage as a working mum.

Can you really do it ? Can you have it all – successful career, happy children, home cooked meal on the table every day?

The short answer is – no. Somebody somewhere will suffer. Women can’t have it all. You need to decide what is more important. You need to compromise - ideally, on your successful career, rather than children.

With one child, it is perfectly possible to go back to work and with the help of the paid childcare continue on your chosen career path.  And you may even be able to go away on holidays once in a while.

With two children, it is still possible, but you can kiss goodbye any savings, as all your salary will be going into childcare and you will be working solely for job satisfaction.

With three or more children – forget it.

After I’ve had my fourth child, the health visitor on her first visit asked me what did I do before I had my children, assuming immediately that I was now a stay-at-home mum.

Well, actually, I was still working. Thanks to my ever-forgiving boss, I have transferred to working from home after the birth of my third child. But it was basically either that, or nothing at all, as the cost of childcare would have been prohibitive.

Not everybody is that lucky to be able to work from home for a company, and many mums think of a ways to start their own business and become self employed “mumpreneurs”.

In the end, when you work from home, you actually end up working more, as there is very hard to draw a line between work and home. So for any employers out there – there’s a clever way to get more out of your employee – employ mothers and get them to work from home – they’ll be forever grateful they have a job and will do more then your average 9-5 bloke. OK so they won’t travel up and down the country as being away from their offsprings for more than 2 miles away will tear them apart, but they’ll pretty much say Yes to any other work. As long as they can be there, at the school gates, every day at 3pm, picking their little ones up.  

Because as much as you want to be successful, and compete with other men (or women) in the business world, you can’t. Once you’ve got your babies, till you die, your main job is being a mum.  They don’t need you there 100% of the time, but they will remember if you were not there. And who knows, in years to come, when they flee the nest, you may be able to go back to work full time, and pick up your ambitions once more.