A Mother’s Work Meme

My post for Mother.Wife.Me's 'A Mother’s Work Meme', enjoy! x 


Rules:
Please post the rules
Answer the questions in as much or as little detail as suits you
Leave a comment on mother.wife.me so we can keep track of the meme
Tag 3 people and link to them on your blog
Let them know you tagged them
Tweet loudly about taking part (well ok, that isn’t a rule, but how about if we start a hashtag – #amothersworkmeme)

Questions:
1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
2.  What is your current situation?
3.  Freestyle – got your own point you’d like to get across on this issue? Here’s your chance…

And, most importantly…. you’re tagged!!



1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
Yes I had worked at my current company for 6 years before taking my maternity leave.

2.  What is your current situation?
I work 4 days a week and have one very precious day with my daughter, plus our weekends. I work long days due to my commute to work so my day off means everything to me. We've had the same routine now since I went back to work after 9 months and she is now 2 years old.

3. Freestyle
I wanted to write a little from the point of view of the commuting mum, maybe it's just me this has affected but I would love to hear from anyone in the same boat. I think I would happily have been a stay at home mum, but the mortgage said otherwise, so I started back to work after 9 months leave. In the run up to me returning to work I decided I really wanted to go back just three days a week, at least to start off with. I knew that my commuting would mean long hours and minimal time with my little one on the days I was at work and after being with my little on 24/7 for 9 months, this length of time apart felt a heartbreaking prospect. In my head I felt working three days would have meant that family time still outweighed work time, which is a good thing psychologically! Also there was the childcare issue, my mum had offered to help out for two days a week and my mother-in-law for one so it would have been perfect. 


When I looked into it and did my sums however, I found my train travel costs were going to be the same whether I worked three or five days. I would be paying for a service I wasn't using and my options were pretty frozen. It was really frustrating at the time especially for a slightly over emotional mummy, how could this be fair fares?! In balance we worked out we could afford everything if I did a four day week and my wonder mum said she would help an extra day but it meant asking more of her than I'd hoped. 


I've read a few newspaper articles recently about the percentage of wages that are going on travel but they never seem to mention the part-time mum. With reduced wages due to reduced hours, when I work out my monthly pay/travel expenses percentage, it's pretty disheartening. Now I work 4 days a week about 38% of my monthly take home wage goes on travel. If I had gone for 3 day working week I would have been paying roughly 50% on travel, can anyone afford this much? On top of this, during the shake up I also lost my working tax credits which were a big help. I'm realistic that there isn't an endless pot of mummy to hand out but they don't take into account such big outgoings when they look at your wage do they?

All in all I can't complain about life, I enjoy my job and I have a wonderful family. We are a happy little family and gorgeous girl enjoys all her time with her grandparents and also with me, so our routine works out in its own little way. As she starts preschool our routine will inevitably have to change, so I'm waiting with baited breathe to find what the future holds, I've been promised part of it will be massive hikes in rail fares!

Why not head over to the fantastic blog Mother.Wife.Me who started this meme and read the other entries? She'd love people to join in, so you are all invited!


And now the rules say tag three people, no pressure but if you fancy it, I tag...

http://mummyvswork.co.uk
http://whatmeandtheboyssay.posterous.com/
http://i-heart-motherhood.blogspot.co.uk/

Dress up Friday

It's dress up Friday over on the Reiss twitter page. I spend quite a lot of time browsing their website dreaming up outfits, so I could't resist putting an outfit together here on my blog. In a few Fridays time I'll be at my brother's wedding at the very stylish, Rennie Mackintosh designed venue, 'The Art House' in Glasgow. This would be my perfect 'Dress Up Friday' for the occasion. How beautiful is the Lexi stepped dress? I love the colour and the gorgeous lines of the shape. If you want to find links to any of the garments visit my board on pinterest here.

I'd love to know what you think of my dream outfit!

Dreaming big

I didn't get much sleep last night, I'm not going to complain too much though... strangely I almost enjoyed being woken last night.

At 4am the dreaded "Muuuuuuummy I want more miiiiiilk" on repeat. She really only wakes every now and then in the night, I normally bring her some milk, leave it with her and go back to bed so it's not too much bother. 


Last night I couldn't get back to sleep though, and neither could she. After 30 minutes of me lying awake I heard "Muuuuummy, can I come in your bed?" She hasn't asked that in ages so I thought she must really be feeling restless so I brought her up. 


Then she randomly wanted me to find her Snow White doll to cuddle, so I did. After telling her a couple of made up stories about our little friend Oscar Mouse she nodded off. 


Then she started jumping, twitching and making noises... oh no nightmares I thought. But Then I realised she was actually laughing! So funny. Then all was quiet again. Just snoring. More quiet. Then she shouts "we are princesses, we are princesses!" still asleep, but sounded so excited. 


I was really surprised she was dreaming about princesses, I thought she'd be dreaming about things she does, like eating peas or something. What a cute little insight into my daughters mind. I'm happy mummy, but after the alarm went of an hour and a half later, very tired!

It's arrived!

My love2read book arrived on Friday, I was so pleased when I opened it, the quality is fantastic. It's even better than I imagined, and it looks and feels just like a real book. (I will try and add a picture soon).

My little girl wanted to get reading it straight away so I explained it was her special present to give to nana so we had to keep it precious! I am really excited about giving it to mum now. I know if someone had given me one of these as a surprise I would be completely made up.


A really lovely gift for any occasion!