Babies and commuting and working and cooking and changing and feeding and trying - trying very hard to keep it all together. That's how it was for me in the early days - like for so many others - as a new mother trying to maintain a career. I vividly remember reading an article by Gaby ...
Over seven years as a mother working outside the home, I've learnt a thing or two: 1. The working mother clichés are true Soother in suit pocket? Check. Smushed banana on trousers? Check. Racing out of work to make it to creche on time? Yes, a thousand times over. Clichés exist because they are mostly true, and really, in this ...
I'm writing this from my small boy's bedroom floor, and when he finally goes to sleep, I'll grab something to eat, probably standing at the counter, making a school lunch and checking e-mails at the same time. Then I'll bake a cake for the school cake-sale. OK, there's no cake-sale. But you get the drift. ...
A good friend told me last week that she's changing jobs - moving from a chilled-out project role back into the mayhem of daily operations. This is the reverse of what she wanted when going back to work after her second baby was born three years ago - in fact for many working mothers, chilled-out project roles ...
Childcare booked - check. Return to work date agreed - check. Sense of calm and wellbeing? Not quite there yet. Going back to work after maternity leave is a time of mixed emotions for many mothers - for some it's a worry, for some, it's exciting. And for most, it's a lot from column A and ...
Amid the strong support for the feelings expressed in Donna Hartnett's open letter to Enda Kenny, there has also been some "tough luck, you can't have it all" type responses (on Twitter, and some referenced here) I don't think that's the point at all - I don't think anyone expects to "have it all" - certainly not ...
So Facebook and Apple are paying for female employees to freeze their eggs, to enable them to continue working for longer before having children, according to NBC news this week. It’s billed as the latest in a series of benefits provided by the corporate giants, as part of what’s termed a “perks arms race”. But what message ...
Since starting Office Mum, I’ve been fortunate to get to know some really inspiring women who work in the area of helping mothers to balance careers with family. They’ve very kindly joined forces to contribute to this post, in order to give you some of their top tips for juggling work and home – setting ...
"Ireland is better than the US but not as good as Scandinavia," I said to the public policy student who was sitting beside me, "I'd say we fall somewhere in the middle." We were at "Families and Work: A Chance for Change", a seminar organised by Start Strong, the National Women's Council and ICTU, ahead of ...
My friend was not impressed. A 5pm conference call that was scheduled to last two hours. So instead of using his office phone, he dialled in on his mobile. At 6, he left work, still on the call. He walked to the train station, took the train home, got tea organised for his kids, and ...