By Flora Hardy, Senior Account Manager
A friend recently described her first week back at work after maternity leave as “actual heartbreak, worse than any breakup you’ve ever had.”
I’ve just returned to work after spending a year with my daughter. Like a breakup, there was the initial heartache of separation, and now there is the process of rediscovering who I am without her. How do I fit in at work now?
I’m not the same person who left months ago. I can’t always make that 8am breakfast briefing and I’m definitely not the first in the pub on a Thursday. I have new perspectives and priorities, but I have gained a deeper sense of patience, empathy and resilience, and hopefully I’m a better colleague because of it.
The freedom that comes with returning to work has been amazing. Hot coffees (!), spending time with my colleagues, lunch breaks in Soho, being more creative and generally using my brain in different gears again. It feels really good to have a multi-dimensional life, even if switching hats so many times in a day makes your head spin.
Before returning to the office, I gathered some advice on the balancing act of motherhood and work from the working Mums in my life.
We weren’t designed to raise children on our own. Lean on the support around you.
Fill your cup up first. Go to bed early and prioritise your health.
Don’t rush to and from nursery just for those extra 15 minutes. It makes no difference to them but makes you more stressed when you could really do with the time in between to just breathe.
Don’t try to look after a sick child and work at the same time or you’ll do both badly. Pick one.
It’s so important to spend time stoking other fires in your life. It makes us better parents and better role models.
And finally, Ellie, recently back from maternity leave herself, tells me “The ‘Mum guilt’ is real and it can be intense when you first go back to work. Become okay that you can’t be everything to everyone. And let’s not forget the practical side of things, your income is supporting your family as well as setting a great example of hard work and ambition. We should be proud of ourselves.”
What an incredible community I’ve become a part of, and how much easier returning to work has been because of it.
