Wild flowers and summer showers.

How I am going to be juggling work and mum life this summer.

Or at least how I PLAN to…

Photo by Irina Iriser on Unsplash

Hello lovelies,

First of all, thank you to everyone who has recently signed up to my Substack. One thing I love about this writing space, is that there is no pressure to compete with numbers, no vanity metrics (unless you want to share these) and just a really lovely space to chat. So I hope you enjoy being here as much as I do!

I have recently had a lot of my conversations with other parents which has followed this format:

“Hello, how are you?”

“Fine and you?”

“Fine thanks.”

“Ready for the summer holidays and THE JUGGLE?”

“No. Are you?'“

“No.”

Good. So we are all on the same page. Except it isn’t good really is it?

Before having my third child, and before 2020, when everything seemed a bit calmer and simpler, I looked forward to the summer holidays. I was privileged that at the time I worked in a preschool, meaning the summer holidays stretched ahead of me, in the same vast excited space of nothingness, as it did for my children.

Now, we are all working our socks off to afford to pay the bills, whilst clinging onto those summer memories of late nights, park picnics and bare feet.

Every summer since I entered a world of juggling three children and a job, I write a list of all the lovely days out I would like to enjoy over the course of the six/seven weeks before they return to school. This list is then pinned up on the fridge so every time I open the door I am reminded that we haven’t done half the things I wanted to do. The list gets shifted around a bit and rescheduled for the next school holidays.

This summer, I really want to try and get a good grip of a working schedule so that I can give myself “proper” days out to fully immerse myself in the joy of the summer holidays, in the way I remember them when I was little.

One minute sitting at my desk, tapping away at the keys of my laptop, the next stood in the garden admiring the wild flowers and feeling the gentle summer breeze on my face, as the children race each other up and down the small plastic slide.

The whole reason I went freelance, was to chase my writing dreams and to be able to spend time with the kids whilst working and earning a living. And for the most part it works well. But it took some getting used to and drawing upon all my organisational skills during the school holidays.

I am already planning my schedule of hours and my husband has used some annual leave from work to help out with childcare. We are very fortunate to have my parents to help out as well and ALSO my oldest son is now at an age (10) where he is pretty self sufficient and will, I imagine, spend most of his summer at the park or at a friends house, eyes glued to the screen.

There are a couple of holiday clubs I have signed them up to and we have a camping trip booked, so already I can feel our days filling up quite nicely.

So what are my top tips for managing “the juggle”?

This is completely from my experience last summer, where I am learning from my mistakes:

• Sort childcare in plenty of time. Make sure meetings etc are covered also…Zoom meetings with the kids in the background are stressful.

• Have set work days (if this is possible for you of course!). I plan to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and nothing either side. So when I am off work, we can fully enjoy the time together. (Again, I appreciate I work freelance so this is possible, but it does also mean I am known to open up the laptop during nap times and evenings.)

• Have at least one “home day” a week. I love days out but I also love the lazy, slow down and chill out days. And they are needed. The kids are exhausted from school, homework and after school clubs, so the summer is the best time to recharge those batteries.

• Save money on days out by taking picnics and your own drinks where possible. I don’t want to end up having to work even more hours come September because I over spent on days out in the holidays.

And finally,

Make time to wander through the wild flowers, absorbing the summer showers. Put the spinning plates down for a moment and look after yourself.