Zone account director Sophie Bliss is embracing life as a working mum after a year on maternity leave…
I am pleased to announce that I’ve just completed my first month back at work after a year on maternity leave. Like most returners, I had the fear — of failing my child, my company or myself. Let’s face it, after a year at home with a baby, surely my brain would have turned to mush, my vocabulary would be severely depleted and my motivation wildly different. Everything will have changed, I worried — people will have left and I’ll sit in the corner silently weeping over a document that needs to be finished within the hour.
But no. Flexible working and friendly colleagues have meant that returning to work has not only been OK, but actually enjoyable. I have used my brain, spoken to adults, felt good at something other than playing peekaboo and been able to go the loo without a tiny person staring up at me — result!
If I could talk to myself the week before starting back at work, I would sit me down with a cup of tea (or wine) and offer these words of wisdom:
- You have given birth and kept a small human alive for a year… you can do anything. You may think your brain was shrinking day by day, but actually you’ve been picking up new skills all over the place
- As cliched as it sounds, your multitasking is second to none. You hold a conversation, feed your baby and pack her bag several times a day. Juggling your workload will be a doddle
- You can prep and plan a day out around nap times, eating and tantrums in three minutes flat — you can plan a project blindfolded
- You have been thrown into odd and new social situations and been fine. Sure, they were based around singing nursery rhymes and wiping peanut butter off your chest, but you still managed to make friends in difficult situations. New client? Easy in comparison to walking into a new play group
I’m sure every returner has the same anxieties and although I don’t feel completely the same as I did, I feel safe in the knowledge that, even though the pace of my life has changed, I am not completely useless and can enjoy the freedom working life brings.
You spend all your time off wishing the best for your little one, hoping they will grow into confident, independent, sociable humans. It’s time to wish that for yourself too.
