The night before returning to work after Christmas, many of us feel The Fear; lying awake, mind buzzing, right at the time when we really, really need to sleep. But this is a just momentary quiver in comparison to the all-consuming, stomach-churning fear that some of us experience the night before returning to work after maternity leave. Going back after ...
The next interview in this series is with Brenda Brooks; mother of two small children, actress and producer. She has just finished filming The Play Next Door by Deirdre Purcell which will be broadcast in January on RTE 1 and is currently filming Citizen Charlie a three-part drama about Charles Haughey’s life. Brenda is also ...
“I’m a firm believer that women can do everything men can, only better and with more humility!” Jill O’Herlihy has worked in Communications at O’Herlihy Communications for the past 17 years. She is mom to two children; Martha is six and Bill is three and a half. She doesn’t have any pets to throw into the ...
"I try hard not to compromise the kind of mother I want to be, by not letting work encroach on the children’s time. But inevitably, deadlines need to be met" Next up, in this series of interviews with mothers, is Carmel Harrington, a sales manager turned stay-at-home-mother and now a published author. She is actually living the ...
“I always say 'nobody died’ and then try and get on with it. Women are natural multi-taskers so we tend to think we can 'do-it-all'. In my experience, something has gotta give” Lorraine Keane, well-known Irish broadcaster, is this week's interviewee in the Office Mum interview series. In her capacity as Microsoft Ambassador, she is chatting about family life and ...
It's two months now since our nanny upped and left after just four days, with no notice and almost no notification of any kind. We were not impressed (the tears are almost visible here). She will be on the family blacklist FOREVER. I spent the following weeks worrying about work and childcare; trying to come up with ...
"I think once you become a parent, guilt is inevitable" "I often feel like I am present physically but trying to work on something myself while doing homework/cooking dinner etc. I feel like I may be around my children a lot of the ...
This is the first in a series of interviews with mothers; chatting about home and work and family, and that elusive balance that we all seek. Topics range from childcare to career changes, working from home to stay-at-home mothers, setting up businesses, fitting in homework, the ever-present guilt, and mostly, not doing a lot of ironing. The ...
Maternity benefit has been cut in this week’s budget to €230 per week, down from €262*. This is getting some attention in the media, but understandably, it is overshadowed by more hard-hitting changes. There have been some comments from ISME, One Family, and from the Director of the National Women’s Council of Ireland Orla O’Connor ...
Is there really a glass ceiling for women in the workplace? Or is it for the most part, something experienced by mothers in the workplace? I realise that this is a controversial question but I’m genuinely interested to know if there are people reading who have been held back in the workplace simply because of being female. In my own experience ...