Over the past number of months, my main motivator and driving force has also been my reason to prioritise and therefore take things a little bit easier aswell. As you may know from my previous blogs, we are happily expecting our first baby next month so being at home full-time and able to schedule work around childcare is one of the many advantages I’m looking forward to being able to capitalise on; however after talking to lots of other women in my pregnancy classes, there are very few others able to enjoy this benefit. I had to write something about this because more people should know that you don’t have to save for years to have children or cut maternity leave short for monetary reasons and there is another way around these common concerns. I find myself seething with anger that this is something we STILL accept as a way of life and that you just have to ‘get on with it’.
I’m aware that this simply where I am in life right now and it’s probably not your reason for wanting to work from home but if you know someone in this situation, please feel free to forward a link for this blog post to them incase I can help.
We all know it’s not uncommon or unknown to expect your job to have changed while you’re away or to not “technically” be there when you get back which makes that time before going on maternity leave all the more stressful. I can now personally vouch for there being quite enough things to be concerned with in the delicate process of nurturing a baby from inception through to healthy birth alone without adding external employers agendas into the mix.
While some ladies in my classes were working extra hours (when they were already exhausted growing a human) training their replacements, writing detailed debriefs and hoping their role would continue to be there on their return, others were comparing the cost of childcare for their return back to work with their monthly take home pay to see that there was little difference between their new bills and existing level of income.
Worries of being seen as a weaker member of the team if having to take additional days off for child related sick days and occasions and passing up on promotions they had worked towards for years because of this change in circumstances further impacted their concerns.
While some had saved for some time to be in a position to take their full maternity leave and subsidise the drop in pay after so many weeks, others simply couldn’t afford it and had to return to work after just a few weeks. The ladies in this situation were usually the main breadwinners in their households, however this scenario is even harder to bear as it means because they have worked hard for the majority of their working lives, they simply had to continue working just as hard and miss out on such an important time in their child’s life.
Being your own boss may have it’s own challenges of having to motivate yourself to actually work when you need to, however this is a minimal concern when I compare it with the worries and stresses of my new pregnant acquaintances.
5 reasons network marketing worked for me during pregnancy and beyond:
1) This entirely flexible way of working can take as little as 2 hours a week and fit around crazy sleeping patterns to give you money in your bank account and invaluable peace of mind.
2) You can spend as much or as little time on it as you wish to make as much or little extra income as you wish, so when you are sleep deprived – sleep, and when you feel ok – earn!
3) You could use it as a way to top up your income and give you valuable extra time at home before returning to work
4) You could spend a little more time on it and give yourself the choice of whether you would actually like to return to work at all
5) Being able to choose your own hours means you can schedule work for times when someone else can be there so you can avoid childcare costs saving yourself a considerable amount of money in these precious early years!
If anyone would like further information on what I do, please get in touch with me. Email me on gracecarlisle@outlook.com and mention where you’re from so I can suggest a way of reaching out with information you can review.
Thanks for reading!
Best,
Grace