Day 13 of my #30DayBlog challenge, give your blog a song title, and we are into the school holiday and spring bank holiday bonanza season.
I am writing this blog with my little girl perched on my knee, cutting out an elaborate game of nought and crosses from my work notebook. That’s okay because I like that game and also it is just for the holidays; mostly she is in school and my son has a couple of days in nursery, so I can structure my working week around their many and varied demands.
I’ve always been sceptical about the women who write a successful novel while baby sleeps under the desk, or who take their babies to work in a sling, but if that has worked for you then my admiration is total.
I have a very talented cousin, a great photographer who runs a successful business up in Manchester making wedding day memories more special for lots of couples, among other things. She also has an adorable little boy who is just over one and is now less compliant in the sleeping under the metaphorical desk category.
So what to do? What help is out there for enthusiastic entrepreneurial mums who want to make their own business work well and work around their children?
Being an employee you can cash in on childcare voucher schemes, where money is taken from your salary before you receive it and importantly before you are taxed, with both parents are eligible to claim. Being self-employed excludes you from this, although some relief is available through tax credits, though to benefit from this you and your partner (if you have one) must be working more than 16 hours per week, and between you earning less than around £42K per year. And from age 3 everyone is entitled to 15 hours childcare before your child goes to school at 5.
What happens if you aren’t yet earning or making the 16 hours needed to qualify? This is where the great free tribe of grandparents have to come in, or you rely on carefully prescribed rules around reciprocal childminding between friends. And the reality is often a big juggling act of naps, bedtimes and playtimes fitted in around stretches of work and ignoring the ‘can you look at this mummy?’ or ‘can you help me with this please?’
The frustrating thing is that friends and family may not always be in a position or willing to support you and your decisions for your business and for your family, and of course working isn’t just about the practicalities, it’s also about the guilt triggers and the feeling that the solutions you have are not ‘good enough’ – there’s always someone quick to pull the trigger with the ‘bad mum’ bullet loaded. It’s an old discussion and everyone has an opinion , but it always comes down you having the confidence to make the right decisions, to stick by what you have decided, and to make that work until ‘good enough’ is enough for you.
Looking through the Start Up Britain website, I was hoping to find some tips or guidance that I could offer up in a ‘big cousin’ kind of a way, and found – well, nothing. What about the getting started aspects covering a piece on what to do for childcare? Or a piece on how to overcome common barriers to people who are starting out? Or even a link list to the various websites that do support women well.
It shouldn’t continue to be down to specific ‘women’s interest’ sites to have to figure this out, it should be part and parcel of how we as a country intend to drive more business success and support the men and the women bold enough to put themselves out there and follow their own path to profitability and a meaningful work/life balance.
And the song? By seminal Manchester Band The Smiths, from their album ‘Strangeways Here we Come’ – watch the YouTube video if unlike me you are too young to know it, fabulous shots of Salford Lads Club and lots of Morrissey lookalikes riding around on bicycles – well it is Friday afternoon!
Start Up Britain; MoneySavingExpert – Childcare costs;
Childminding among friends by Ofsted; Mum’s the Boss has a great reference section on specific support sites for women.
You’ve captured it right there ‘barriers’. Then, once you do get off the starting blocks the unpredictable nature of parenthood rears its head with a bout of hand, foot and mouth or the like! One organisation that recognises barriers to work is Remploy. Their Employment Services division specialises in supporting individuals that have barriers to work in gaining employment. They partner with Gingerbread who focus on lone-parent families and the assistance they may require.
http://www.remploy.co.uk
http://www.gingerbread.org.uk
You’ve captured it right there ‘barriers’. Then, once you do get off the starting blocks the unpredictable nature of parenthood rears its head with a bout of hand, foot and mouth or the like! One organisation that recognises barriers to work is Remploy. Their Employment Services division specialises in supporting individuals that have barriers to work in gaining employment. They partner with Gingerbread who focus on lone-parent families and the assistance they may require.
http://www.remploy.co.uk
http://www.gingerbread.org.uk
I’d love for someone to take my little man for a couple of hours each day so I could get on with things, and my older two during school holidays, my work suffers loads because I have to be mum first. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, they grow up so quickly so there’s plenty of time for work later. In the meantime we’ll just have to be frugal without the extra money I could be making.
Oh, and I loved The Smiths 🙂
I agree it’s a dilemma, I worked some distance away when my little girl was small, I used to spend my time at work enjoying work but wishing I was home with her, and my time at home enjoying her but thinking about what I should be doing at work! If only you could be in two places at once, at least working at home I can be split down the middle in different rooms rather than different towns.
I’d love for someone to take my little man for a couple of hours each day so I could get on with things, and my older two during school holidays, my work suffers loads because I have to be mum first. I wouldn’t have it any other way though, they grow up so quickly so there’s plenty of time for work later. In the meantime we’ll just have to be frugal without the extra money I could be making.
Oh, and I loved The Smiths 🙂
I agree it’s a dilemma, I worked some distance away when my little girl was small, I used to spend my time at work enjoying work but wishing I was home with her, and my time at home enjoying her but thinking about what I should be doing at work! If only you could be in two places at once, at least working at home I can be split down the middle in different rooms rather than different towns.