Working Mum
As I sit in my kitchen, with a cupper in hand and two calendars in front of me, scheduling the month ahead, one for the family and one for my business. I start to add swimming lessons, music lessons, costumes that need creating for the next school event, play dates and birthday parties. I giggle to myself; how can two little people have such a busy diary?
The challenge then starts as I fill in my business plans, attempting to juggle family and work.
With a new business that requires a lot of nurturing, finding a balance is not an easy task!
Writing this blog takes me back to the time pre-children, when all I thought about was starting a family. For several years I had troubles with carrying to full term and sadly this ended in some tragic losses, but I never gave up.
From then I finally gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, William, and then went onto to have a second child, Olivia. These two bundles became the centre of my universe and the sole focus of my life.
Time went on and my gorgeous children became not so little anymore and both started school (how time flies!).
With them both at school this then became the start of a new chapter and I needed something to not only occupy my time but a chance to fulfill my ambitious dreams of becoming a successful business woman.
So here I am now trying to balance my fulfilled life as a working mum without making many compromises, I’m sure there are other working mums who understand the challenges of achieving this.
I am the kind of mum who likes and requires a routine but working from home offers so much more flexibility that I would not get from employment.
Part of the fun of having a creative business means I can share and involve my family in the process. The kids love to have an input and, with great imaginations, they are a real inspiration to my designs.
The successful working mums daily struggle.
A typical day in the Smith house hold starts with a rather rude awakening by two little monkeys at the crack of dawn. Being very independent these days means they insist on making their own breakfast, which suits mum just fine. That gives me a chance to drag myself out of bed, a quick brush of mascara and I’m ready to face the world and the dishwasher as it won’t unload itself!
We then have the dreaded school run with badly parked cars and over tired mothers eager to escape as that window between school hours is always a rush to get things done! This is my most productive time, suddenly my house is quiet and those meetings, emails, and phone calls can commence!
Those tedious but essential jobs like making sure there is food in the house is definitely made easier with online orders. What would I do without it! I am also a bit of a clean freak and I literally scrub every evening when the husband goes out to milk his cows and the children are tucked up in bed. Now we have the capability of emails and communication via our handy phones, I find myself multi-tasking: responding to an email whilst running the hoover round!
It’s never easy but it can be done!
The brand Emily Smith has evolved from original paintings on canvas to producing high quality homewares and accessories from ceramics to umbrellas. I have so many ideas and different avenues that I want to explore. I cannot wait to take my business further, and I hope that every day I am an inspiration to my children and that whatever they set their minds to they can achieve it!
