How to Mummyjuggle a Family & a Career

demandra - 5 Mar 16

With Mothers day rapidly approaching, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can keep focussed on what’s really important in life, while still retaining my sense of self and purpose (and sanity!).

I set up Mummyjugglers to see if anyone else felt the same way as I do about the challenges associated with managing Motherhood and a career. I surveyed Mothers’ feelings from my community and beyond. Not only did I get an incredibly fast response (over 180 replies in 6 hours), it showed me that I wasn’t the only one that felt like this. *

Most of the women I surveyed agreed that personal/ career ambition at this point in their life was still important to them. This is heartening to see. Yet, for the majority of women, their personal & work/career ambitions only sometimes overlapped. As one way that women can maintain a sense of self outside of their kids, this feels like a missed opportunity.

Yet, for the vast majority of Mothers (83% of them in fact) the biggest challenge to pursuing ambitions with a family is juggling home and work life. I know from personal experience how hard it is to keep sight of yourself in the craziness of family, kids, responsibility and work. Last year, I ended up being signed off work with anxiety after a particularly intense period at work, combined with a husband who was doing 14 hour days, two kids, a 3 hour round trip commute to work and a new puppy. Personal ambition not only went out the window, but so did physical health and mental well being!

I am passionate about finding ways that we can keep connected with ourselves & our needs through Motherhood. For me, there seems to be little narrative around this in general conversation and in the media.

Staying committed to working and my career has helped me to stay connected with my sense of self. While I love what I do, I have recently felt that working in the way that I had done was no longer working for me, and for my family. It was simply too much. What is saddening is that the alternatives seem limited. Just over a third of Mummyjugglers (38%) agreed that Opportunities for Career Progression are limited when you have kids.

This makes no sense to me. Is time really the only factor in determining career progression in this digital age? In so many industries it has been shown that time doesn’t necessarily equate to effectiveness and results. Similarly, why does success only to equate to more management responsibility? The world around us in going through an entrepreneurial revolution. Where entrepreneurs are following their personal passions, interests and ambitions to fuel and create the work life that they want. Mothers absolutely need to be part of this evolution.

Yet, in more traditional workplaces, the lack of opportunity for Mothers continunes. It seems to be a huge waste to lose so many capable, educated individuals from the workforce when we have children. Especially when work and career can (for some) provide fulfilment and economic mobility, which helps the economy to grow. Business needs to find a way to include parents in the working community while taking into account the needs of families.

From the Mummyjugglers survey, I can see that the majority of women who feel challenge by this know what they need to improve their work/career situation. They want opportunities to bring their work and home life together, where work opportunities that have career progression built in, while at the same time allowing time and energy for family life. One does not have to be at the expense of the other. Many women are realising that the way to do this is on their own terms, in their own businesses as their own Boss.

I am hoping that by working together, The Mummyjugglers community can help women to overcome some of the challenges associated with working and having children. For Mummyjuggler members we’ll share stories on how other people do it and hero employers who are getting it right. Most importantly, we’ll share (and create) opportunities to collaborate together on business ideas and projects, to share skills and work opportunities. We’ll do this mostly online, but (should there be an appetite for it) I will organise a quarterly meet up in London so that we can meet and inspire each other. We’ll also get speakers to join us to keep us inspired and on track. If you have any other suggestions, please share them via the Facebook book or Twitter @Mummyjugglers.

Thank you for all your support over the last couple of weeks! Let’s keep the Mummyjugglers community growing! www.mummyjugglers.com

*I got real spread of responses from Mothers. They tended to have young children (about 43% of them), they were predominantly from the UK, USA & Australia. There was a real mix of women in different situations, with the majority in some sort of paid work, some at home with the kids, quite a few of them freelancing on working on their own businesses. While I don’t pretend that my sample is statistically representative of the population, it did uncover some really interesting results.

demandra

I think it is going to be a tale of the Mummy Juggler! I know that, not for a minute, am I alone on this tale. I am hoping that by sharing my story I might help other’s (and myself) remember that we don’t have to be superwoman, we don’t have to do it all alone, and it’s possible (just about!) to have a successful career and be a present, loving parent. It might also have a bit about the importance of work that counts. That adds to the world in a positive, useful way. Something that I care about immensely. Other times it might just be about life and how to process it all. Lets see what comes out!

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