Back to work after the school holidays
By: Lorna, CEO, redwigwam
As a mother of 3 boys, I look forward to the summer holidays nearly as much as they do! Anything to stop the relentless yelling, “We are going to miss the school bus”, to “Where are my cricket whites?” To a personal favourite in our house, “Tell him, Mum, he is wearing my PE shorts”. The thought of just stopping, sounds relaxing and very welcoming and actually needed by all members of our family. However, I am a working mum, and therefore once I have removed the pressure of the school run, I replace it with the balancing act of being good at my job & being there for my boys.
I am lucky in that my boys are getting older and need different supervision and entertaining through the summer break. However, I am a mum who tries very hard to be around as much as possible, so I organise my holidays and workload so that I can work 3 or 4 days a week and spend the remaining time with my family.
To be honest it was a long summer and when I sat down with a colleague once I had returned them all to their respective schools with new PE kits, shiny shoes and the obligatory new pencil case. I had a coffee machine chat about how I was feeling slightly less inspired than usual and somewhat tired, to be informed by my very insightful colleague, “but you always feel like this after the school holidays”.
It suddenly hit me that those long-awaited holidays put me personally under pressure, I am not at work 100% and I am not on holiday either, thus resulting in me feeling like I am not very good at either of my two jobs, being a Mum and a CEO. So next year I am going to think of book and myself two weeks holiday and let everyone fend for them…We will see!
