Confessions of REAL working parents…



Sometimes knowing that you are not the only one struggling can make all the difference.  When it looks like everyone else seems to be coping and that you are surrounded by ‘yummy mummies, yummy daddies’ and ‘power women’ who have 5 children, look like they’ve just stepped out of the hairdressers and work at board level…. Take comfort in the knowledge that 99% of us are also struggling in the same way you are.

Here are some confessions of real working parents – some things we as a team have experienced ourselves and seen and heard from others recently that illustrate the day-to-day reality of life as a working parent.

Confessions of REAL working parents

The chaotic times…

Half-way through our family summer holiday I had to fly to Germany for a day to do a client presentation because everyone else in the team was on holiday and I was the closest.

Every day I am running just to stand still.

I was on a conference call and had to dial out and back in again due to a call coming through from the nursery (I felt dreadful; no one minded though).

I was rushing to pack the car to leave for work and the childminders in the dark, very early in the morning.  The wind slammed my front door shut, keys and toddler still inside.  I had to race to my friend’s house for the spare key.  My stress levels were so high I thought I was going to have a heart attack!

The times that make us want to scream and cry…

My manager looks up at the clock every time I leave at 5pm to pick up from nursery.

I am so sleep-deprived it feels like I am brain dead.

In my first month back from maternity leave I was given a project where I had very limited expertise.  I was way out of my comfort zone and it caused a lot of stress and anxiety but I didn’t feel able to challenge it as I felt I needed to prove myself again.

My team went through a restructure whilst I was on maternity leave and my role was at risk.  My manager forgot to tell me and I found out whilst chatting to a colleague on my first day back.

To the times when we just have to laugh about it….

I sent my 6-year old in to school as a princess, when it was a normal uniform day – misread the year group that was doing book characters. She was mortified and from now on makes me pack a back-up uniform! 

When heavily pregnant, in my last week before maternity leave, I had a one-to-one meeting with a senior client and had to make notes with an eye-liner pencil that I’d fished out from my bag because I forgot my pen (baby brain?)

I had a conference call with a client whilst my car was up on the ramps at Kwikfit, pre-school pick up…

My husband arrived at work in his car and when he went to get his bag from the back seat realised he’d forgotten to drop the baby off at the nursery on the way…

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.’
(quote by a former professional athlete)


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