Once upon a Tuesday...
Yesterday I visited a client’s office to test a scanning device for a project I’m working on.
During my time there, I engaged with other people sitting in the office – standard chit chat (gosh, isn’t it hot? Like really hot. Too hot? Yeah probably too hot..).
At one point, I proclaimed with great delight that it was my youngest’s first day at nursery and how I was enjoying the freedom it was giving me (I think there might have been a Braveheart impression at some point…I now owe them cakes for that, apparently)
“GOD, NO. Take my kids!”
The response was somewhat muted, “I thought the first day of nursery is meant to be a massive wrench for a mother?” one chap said. To which I responded with a rather loud and purposeful “GOD, NO. Take my kids!”. His face was somewhat horrified so I took the time to explain my position:
I run a small business and, whilst I was able to work my very pregnant ass all the way up to full term to afford two months’ solid maternity leave, that is all I could do without risking Bravand just seizing up altogether.
"Mum is just one of the roles I seek to play in 2018"
For the last four months, I’ve been playing plate-spinner extraordinaire, (literally) balancing bouncing baby on one arm and emails, phonecalls, wireframe concepts and product launches on the other. The best thing about this time has been the sheer brilliance of both client and team members who have endured numerous “Sorry, I’ll call you back” moments and Skype calls with Sam’s small face peering at them from the bottom of the screen. This has taken its toll as what can be achieved in one hour on your own can take three days (I am NOT kidding) with a newborn to look after. My trademark “brilliantly impatient personality” (client quote, not mine) was pushed to the very edge at certain points. Switch to yesterday and after just four hours of having these hands free, I was able to tick at least ten things off the business task list. The achiever in me is in heaven and Bravand’s future is also looking a lot rosier too.
I bloody love what I do for a living. Don’t get me wrong, I bloody love my boys too – with all of my heart, but Mum is just one of the roles I seek to play in 2018 and beyond and spending more than my mortgage on childcare releases me to apply this problem-obsessed brain of mine to real business issues, to better serve our clients, and to get stuck in with a few new ventures that the team and I have held back on since I found out I was going to be a Mum of two under 2.
Now of course, seeing Sam’s little face beaming from ear-to-ear as I left him with a small group of other little humans and fully qualified childcare professionals did pull on a heartstring or two, but very briefly. I can safely report only 24 hours after this exchange that he’s thriving, has eaten more different foods in one day than in his first six months of existence, and is already forming social relationships that I know will make his brilliance even better than it already is.
For me, now is the start of a new, exciting future for the agency, its team and its clients. We’re already finishing off our new website, launching new products (both our own and client) and we are firmly open for business once more.
Wrench? Nope – not for this mum.
#takemykids #femalefounder #womenintech
