We were talking about Mother's Day recently (I suspect I was reminding my kids how much I like lie-ins, breakfast in bed, and lunch in nice restaurants, or just anywhere that doesn't involve cooking it myself) and one of the kids asked when Children's Day is. "Every day is Children's Day!" I said. How so, they wondered. ...
“We want you to be branch manager.” I hung up the phone, those out-of-the-blue words still ringing in my ears. It was 2006, and my department was being outsourced to another financial services company. And now apparently they needed a branch manager. I was thrilled - for a whole millisecond. Then the doubts started creeping ...
Pivot. I like that word. It makes me think of a dancer, or a gymnast turning to the next move in a routine. I was never a dancer, but I did harbour gymnast dreams once upon a time - first, Olympic dreams (because why not, and because I was six), then only slightly less unrealistic ...
Back in April 2017, when I'd been freelancing for two years, I started this post. I think the fact that it's taken me over a year to actually finish it probably sums up freelancing life better than anything else I could say below. But anyway, just over three years into freelancing, here's what works, what doesn't work, and whether ...
Guilt is something that used to preoccupy me greatly when I worked full-time - how long they were commuting and in crèche each week (55 hours, burned on my brain), how little time we had together each evening, and how rushed our mornings were. And most of my guilt surrounded things that hadn't happened yet ...
I read an anecdote on Twitter recently about a little boy who asked a face-painter for a butterfly. His mother wouldn't let him have a butterfly - she wanted something more "boyish". The child really wanted the butterfly, but the dad got involved too, and there was no way they were allowing it. It's a sad ...
55 hours. That was the figure that went around and around in my head when I went back to work after having my first baby. Between commuting and time in crèche, she was out of the house every day for 11 hours, or 55 hours a week. In practice, everything was fine – we had ...
Has motherhood been let down by feminism? I was sent this article today and it brings up some really interesting points. The person who sent me the link told me she misses her career, but knows she’d miss her kids more if she was working full-time, so she’s staying at home for now. She feels ...
Watching an episode of Mad Men recently, I found myself feeling every inch of what was taking place on screen. It wasn't about drinking Bourbon in the office and it wasn't about everyday sexism - it was about an office move. (For anyone who is still watching Mad Men, there are no major spoilers here, but ...
If you're reading this, and you have children, do you work fewer hours per day or days per week than your partner? And if so, do you do that because you want to, or because you feel you've been forced to? I'm reading an article in the Independent this morning, which refers to Glassdoor survey results ...