Its 7.30am, the office is quiet, it’s a golden time for
getting things done, so I’m cracking through the emails, planning my day and
getting on with the more urgent tasks, not to mention enjoying a coffee in
peace!
I’ve been up for at least 2 hours having spent the last 30 minutes
of my precious sleep time being hit in the face by a small soft bunny as my
daughter demands I kiss it. For some
reason (insert random word here) today began at 5am for her and it was not at
all unreasonable at this time to demand we read a book and then go downstairs
to play with duplo (yep - she’s an engineer in the making of course!).
So, why do I still feel that I’m never going to get
everything done that I want to do today?
I’ve had a golden opportunity to get in early and crack on, ahead of the
traffic, ahead of my colleagues and I’ve got the rest of my day clear and free
of meetings, the old me would be seriously happy about a day like this!
But that’s just it, when I’m at work and the day isn’t
back-to-back, I’m stressing about the million-and-one things that never get
done at home, but when I’m at home I’m worrying about how long I can continue
to fit my working week into 3 days and have any career ambitions at the same
time.
I’ve read article after article on “having it all” and they
all basically say the same thing, as a working mum you really can’t…. oh
no, wait, actually, you can.… but there’s a catch - you will feel guilty all
the time and will most probably have to work outside your comfort zone (according
to Sheryl Sandberg)…. in fact if it were easy, there wouldn’t be book after
book being published that try to teach women how to help themselves when it
comes to work.
So how should a mum who has recently returned to the working
world interpret the flood of information out there on how to be a working mum?
And what is this “womanomics” thing anyway?
“Womanomics” is on the JWT future 100 Trends and Change list
for 2015. It was used by journalists Claire Shipman and Katty Kay in their book
“Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success” 2009 and during 2014, became
much more recognised, used by the FT when discussing increasing women in
the workforce across the Muslim world and Golmans Sachs’ Kathy Matsui and
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe suggested that it’s part of the solution to
getting the Japanese economy moving again.... But what is this golden bullet, why
is it suddenly the right answer for everyone?
I think JWT have nailed it – it’s the word “Balance” and specifically selecting Arianna Huffington’s book Thrive, over Sheryl Sandberg’s
“Lean In”, which considers what is it that we actually want? Family life is a juggling act however you
play it, does this mean we all have to feel guilty? No, not really, in fact, next time I’m up at
5am being hit in the face with a soft toy, I will remember that perhaps all I
really want is balance and that I am privileged to be in a position that allows be to enjoy my time both at home and at work!
