Hello and welcome to this months edition of the Mummy Juggle series. A series designed with mums in mind to share stories and inspiration about how we all cope with the day-to-day battle of juggling work and family life. A struggle I’ve affectionately named ‘The Mummy Juggle’.
THE MUMMY JUGGLE: ‘THE NON-STOP JUGGLING ACT OF BEING A MOTHER, HOLDING DOWN A JOB, RUNNING A HOME AND GENERALLY BEING AN ALL ROUND SUPERWOMAN!’
In the series so far we’ve heard from six other amazing mums who are juggling work and family life and from the stories we’ve heard, it’s clear that the notion of a ‘perfect mum’, with an amazing career, perfect house, flat stomach and four beautifully groomed children doesn’t actually exist. The reality is there will always be compromises that have to be made.
In this months edition of The Mummy Juggle we hear from Maria who courageously took a leap of faith and left her job whilst on maternity leave with her second child. Its scary taking such leap into the unknown, especially when there’s an additional mouth around the table to feed, but it appears Maria has now found her path, recently setting up her new business ‘Fill That Space’. I really enjoyed hearing Maria’s story and hope you do too…
The Mummy Juggle: Maria from Mummy On A Break
Until I became a mummy, I really had no idea how it would affect me. How I would think. How I would feel. How I would see things, and how things that were once important would become unimportant. To complicate life even more, and throw more balls into the juggle, whilst I was on maternity leave, with my second child, I decided to take a leap of faith and leave my job. Crazy or courageous. I’ll let you know in a couple of years. What made me do it? I wanted to change my life. I wanted to be the one in control. I didn’t want my corporate life anymore. I wanted my family to be my number one priority. I wanted flexibility without compromise. So when the company I was working for offered me voluntary redundancy I took it. I knew it would be now or never.
So I gave myself a year to decide what my new life would look like. I started a mummy blog to record what was going on in my life and to make sure that I was taking advantage of this ‘free time’. I started volunteering at the local children’s hospital on a weekly basis to give back and do something good. I also put on a childrens christmas fair, with a lot of help from my mummy friends, which raised £1200 for CLIC Sargent. However I knew I needed some formal help. The answer, see a life coach.
She was brilliant. I’d always wanted to start my own business but I’d written this off years ago as I didn’t have an idea. But she questioned this. And over the course of several sessions and completing several exercises I had an idea. And so, I started Fill That Space five months ago. These five months have been mad and there’s been a lot more juggling. Unlike going to work for someone else, my working day and my working week is not standard. Which is great. I do work more hours but I fit work in around my family which is very important for me. This also takes a lot of discipline, which when you’re tired is not always easy. My eldest is still waking up randomly in the middle of the night.
Life is crazy but juggling is so much easier when I feel in control. Anything is possible when I’m in control. I love planning. I love lists. But there are times when I’m completely exhausted and I cannot juggle anymore. You see, for me juggling is part of being a mummy. I just get on with it. Because I feel I have no choice. I mean who else will do it. However, in the last year I’ve learnt a big lesson. I mean huge. I do have a choice. I don’t have to do everything I think has to be done. The world will not end if I do washing a day later, if I don’t clean the cooker for a week or if I sit down for 30 minutes because I’m tired. I’m learning that sometimes I just need to stop. I need to be kind to myself just as I am to my children. Then anything is possible. Happy juggling.’
Thank-you Maria, it’s so true the world will not end if the washing doesn’t get done! I think that’s a mantra we could all do with repeating to ourselves. Its so great to hear that you now feel in control and I wish you all the best with the new business.
If you’d like to hear more from Maria you can find her over on Twitter @MariaAndreasNe1 Instagram @mummyonabreak and Facebook MummyOnABreak or her new business promoting local art and local artists can be found here: ‘Fill That Space’
If you enjoyed this post and have a story to tell that you would like to see featured in this guest series, please drop me a line at emma@thehalcyonyears.com. It would be great to hear from you x
