Through out September on the blog, I am going to be sharing a number of posts about motherhood. Posts that will hopefully encourage you in your role as a mother. They will come from different perspectives – work at home mum (WAHM), stay at home mum (SAHM) and working mum (WM) and also include posts that will cover different areas of a mum’s life.
I am not a huge fan of labels as I think they, by their very nature are limiting, but I highlight them here, so you know I realise not all mums are like me and to let you know that I don’t believe there is any one right model for motherhood.
In my years as a mum, I have spent time in all three groups. Between my first two children I was a “working mum”. I went back to work when my first bubs was nine months old, four days a week, to a corporate job that I actually gave five days a week of effort to. It was the right decision for my family at the time and I did like the work.
After my second child was born I took 12 months maternity leave and was not sure what I would do at the end of that time. As I write in my book:
For the last three months of my maternity leave I became obsessed with deciding what to do. I loved being home with the kids, but part of me was scared of letting go of my career. What would I tick in ‘Occupation’ boxes? And how would I tell people what I did?
In the end, I knew we wanted to have more children and I wanted to be at home at this stage of their lives. I moved beyond issues of title, other people’s opinions and, most importantly, my own fear.
I was a SAHM for over eight years. For the last year, I have been a WAHM. Blogging, writing and blog coaching is now my work, which I squeeze in between nap times, the hours at the end of the day when everyone is settled in bed and hours on the weekend when Mr I becomes the primary carer.
I love this model a lot. The journey it has taken me on over the last year, has exceeded all my expectations and while being a lot of hard work, it has been fun and immensely rewarding. There are times when I struggle with it though, like this week with sick kids or weekends when it is back to back sporting commitments and birthday parties and it is difficult to get some time on the computer until its very late in the evening.
When it gets like this I remind myself that I am setting the pace and although a little tricky sometimes now, when the kids are all in school, I will be able to have “normal” working hours. I do look forward to that part – I might even watch TV occasionally!
I love that I have been able to make these choices. I have been able to choose how I approach motherhood and I have a partner who has been completely supportive of the choices I have made. I am sure that there will be more changes ahead for me in how I approach motherhood, in the years to come.
How have you chosen to approach motherhood?
NB. Thanks to my lovely cousin Bree, who thoughtfully took my camera from me on the weekend and took this picture of me with my littlest one. As I am generally the one behind the camera, I don’t have many photos of me and with the kids. xx