A Mother's Work Meme

Self-indulged as I am, any opportunity to talk about myself must be embraced. I've been tagged in a meme and never having taken part in one before, here goes...

Rules:

1. Please post the rules
2. Answer the questions in as much or as little detail as suits you
3. Leave a comment on mother.wife.me so we can keep track of the meme
4. Tag 3 people and link to them on your blog
5. Let them know you tagged them
6. Tweet loudly about taking part (well ok, that isn’t a rule, but how about if we start a hashtag – #amothersworkmeme

Questions:

1. Did you work before becoming a mum?
2. What is your current situation?
3. Freestyle – got your own point you’d like to get across on this issue? Here’s your chance…

And, most importantly…. you’re tagged!!
northern Mum onelifeand3kids atwentysomethingmum

Off we go!

1) Did I work before becoming a Mum?
Hell yes - work was all I knew. Life before Grace (bg) saw me running a one-stop pet care centre with a staff of 50 odd with the bells and whistles to match. I loved it, it was my life and Matt the Husband was understanding of my addiction to work and the whims that went with it. Like popping into work on my days off to do some work. Or going in early doors because I couldn't sleep for thinking about work. (Or even working through the night the day we had a barney over the wedding budget!). Work was who I was. No surprise then I felt like I'd cut off my arm when maternity leave finished and I was left with a baby who didn't respond to sandwich feedback.

2) What is my current situation?
I'll hold my hands up and say I've been really lucky. Just before I went off on maternity leave my then boss was made redundant. He was the best boss I'd ever had (still) and although I felt I'd lost my other arm (!) it opened a door for me in that his full time post was cut up, diced and served hot in a rebundled package of a 3 day week. Jumping into the swivel chair while it was still warm, I got the job and it sat on the back burner for 9 months while I went off to have Grace.
Back in the saddle for a year now I've had time to reflect. There's no way on this earth I could have keep up the pace of my old job and managed to find the time to be with Grace at a level that works for me. I would have been doing two half-baked jobs and I couldn't have coped with that. As it stands I work 3 days, no strings. I go in, do my work and come home. I still get the odd email or phone call pinging on my smartphone while I'm changing a nappy on a day off, and I still sometimes pop in on my days off... but nowadays its more to say hi with Grace than it is to rattle off some jobs on my to-do list. It suits me well. The only snag has been the money - although I got a promotion, I still took a monster pay drop losing the 16 hours. But I mustn't grumble - my employer has bent over backwards to be accommodating, flexible and understanding. I know I'm one of the lucky ones.

3) Freestyle
My Mother always told me there were 2 things you didn't talk about at dinner parties. Religion and Politics, because both would cause an argument. When it comes to getting Mums back to work for those who want to, I'd like to know which twit signed the paperwork off on the levels of support available for working parents. Childcare costs are prohibitively high for your average Joe's... like £830 a month at the place we use now for Grace, and not something we could have afforded if I'd stayed full time, even with childcare vouchers. We're lucky the MIL lives locally to help us out - we send Grace to nursery once a week for the social time but a lot of my mum-friends aren't fortunate enough to have family on the doorstep to help out. Childcare nowadays seems to be a bigger commitment than taking a mortgage and it's no shocker then that many who'd like to return to work decide not to based on cost alone. A crying shame.

You’re tagged!!
northern Mum onelifeand3kids atwentysomethingmum