More Guilt – and Some Practical Tips for Dealing With Exhaustion at Work

It’s lunchtime and I’m under my desk having a snooze. Well not really, but that’s where I’d love to be right now, as I scribble these notes and drink my third cappuccino. My baby was up all night, and I’m beyond exhausted. OK he’s not technically a baby anymore, and it wasn’t quite all night, just 1am ...

double standards and a nice cup of tea

tea - office mum

I should have been in bed, it was heading towards midnight on Sunday, and I was due up at 4am to head to the airport for a work trip. As usual I was feeling 90% apprehensive - worrying about leaving the kids, anxious that the baby would wake during the night and not understand why I'm not there, certain that ...

Seven tips for going back to work after maternity leave

office mum: maternity leave tips

No matter how much you enjoy your job, and certainly if you don't, returning to work after maternity leave is often daunting. Even if you feel "ready to go back" it's hard leaving the little person with creche or childminder. It's difficult the first time, and it's no less difficult after subsequent babies - not ...

Reward chart for grown-ups

Office Mum reward chart

It's hard to fit everything into the working day: morning rush, getting kids ready for school, getting self in somewhat presentable state for work, long commute catching up on e-mails and texts, work for eight hours, sort out optician appointments for kids, do online groceries or submit health insurance claims if there's time to take a lunch ...

Switching off

blackberries-1608456_1280

It's Good Friday, and I haven't thought about work once today - I love that. We took the kids to Powerscourt House and Gardens - well OK, the House followed by an "adventure" exploring the trees and grass verges on the way back to the car, via the garden centre. To be fair, we were willing ...

A mother’s right to work is sacred

We woke one morning last week to the news that new Personal Insolvency Guidelines would mean people would be asked to cut out Sky Sports packages, stick to one foreign holiday per year, take the kids out of private school and get rid of that expensive second car. It was an interesting topic for the various ...

Guilt

clock - office mum

Last night I wrote my first blog post, about the challenges facing working mums, and the universe subsequently laughed at me, in a "you ain't seen nothing yet" kind of way, then unleashed a properly challenging day on this working mum: My baby was up from 3am onwards, feeding like a newborn, oblivious to my looming day at ...

Is there anyone out there?

Office Mum: stork and baby

It's after midnight, and like any mum whose baby wakes somewhere between 1am and 5am, I'm tucked up in bed, fast asleep, getting some precious zzz's in before it all kicks off. Except of course I'm not - I'm sitting up watching tv, finishing a glass of wine, and tapping out words on the internet. And I ...