The negative thing is that for 12 months I've had a little ball of stress inside me, constantly thinking about how I'll juggle work with being a mum. I finally chose a childminder for Mini, Izey was signed up at Mini's old nursery. My back to work day was getting closer and closer.
There's a couple of things i did that helped me get back into some sort of routine. Here are my top 5 tips for returning to work after maternity leave.
1. CHILDCARE
If you can afford to put your baby in childcare before you go back to work, they should (in theory) settle in by the time you start work.
Two months before i went back to work, Izey went to nursery 2 mornings a week. After a month, we increased to 2 full days. Last week when i dropped him off at nursery, he knew the people he was with, he knew the routine. He still tried to cling to me & had a little cry but soon got distracted by the breakfast. By the time I was out the front door, peeking in the window he had forgotten all about me.
It made leaving him so much easier & quicker. It's an extra expense but worth every penny.
2. ALARMS
Set Alarms, lots of them.
Let me start by saying: I'm not a morning person.
When Mini started school i set a scheduled alarm on my mobile phone. I set it to go off at the time we needed to leave the house and another alarm to go off 5 minutes before that. I call it a 5 minute warning, it means there's no surprises when the 'leave now' alarm goes off.
When Mini started school i set a scheduled alarm on my mobile phone. I set it to go off at the time we needed to leave the house and another alarm to go off 5 minutes before that. I call it a 5 minute warning, it means there's no surprises when the 'leave now' alarm goes off.
3.HOLIDAYS
You might find that you have a huge amount of holidays that have built up while you were away from work. Luckily my boss accepted my request to work 4 days a week. If he hadn't though, I would have asked to use 1 day of holiday per week. That extra day per week will give you a little extra time to get yourself organised, do your shopping, ironing, batch cooking - whatever it is that you need to do.
I know this wont work for everyone but its worth considering if you have lots of holidays to use up.
You might find that you have a huge amount of holidays that have built up while you were away from work. Luckily my boss accepted my request to work 4 days a week. If he hadn't though, I would have asked to use 1 day of holiday per week. That extra day per week will give you a little extra time to get yourself organised, do your shopping, ironing, batch cooking - whatever it is that you need to do.
I know this wont work for everyone but its worth considering if you have lots of holidays to use up.
4. MORE HOLIDAYS
Don't use all those holidays up just yet!!!
You're babies will pull a sickie - FACT.
Which means you will have to take time off work to look after them. In the UK, you have a statutory right to a certain amount of time (usually 2 days) off to look after dependents. This all depends on your employer and how they choose to handle it. I prefer to keep a couple of days holiday for emergencies.
Guess what?
Izey has ALREADY had 1 day where he had such a high temperature that I couldn't take him to nursery, I had to stay home and he slept on me ALL day.
5. CLOTHING RAIL
Don't use all those holidays up just yet!!!
You're babies will pull a sickie - FACT.
Which means you will have to take time off work to look after them. In the UK, you have a statutory right to a certain amount of time (usually 2 days) off to look after dependents. This all depends on your employer and how they choose to handle it. I prefer to keep a couple of days holiday for emergencies.
Guess what?
Izey has ALREADY had 1 day where he had such a high temperature that I couldn't take him to nursery, I had to stay home and he slept on me ALL day.
5. CLOTHING RAIL
Pre children - I used to pick out what I wanted to wear in the morning, iron it & then wear it. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that you can save valuable time by choosing your outfit the night before, ironing it & setting it out ready to wear the next day.
I've tried two variations of this over the years.
The first was to iron 5 work outfits at the weekend, hang them on a temporary clothes rail in my spare room and choose from those 5 outfits during the week. This worked really well because it still gave me a choice of what to wear each day. The only problem was that I wasn't always so organised.
The 2nd option is fairly obvious; to choose the outfit & iron it the night before. Some evenings I get lazy & don't follow through on this but by morning I'm kicking myself, whilst staring at my wardrobe and thinking " I have nothing to wear !!!!!"
I'm sure there's plenty of others that I should try (such as batch cooking, meal planning...)
What are your tips for being organised when going back to work ?
I've tried two variations of this over the years.
The first was to iron 5 work outfits at the weekend, hang them on a temporary clothes rail in my spare room and choose from those 5 outfits during the week. This worked really well because it still gave me a choice of what to wear each day. The only problem was that I wasn't always so organised.
The 2nd option is fairly obvious; to choose the outfit & iron it the night before. Some evenings I get lazy & don't follow through on this but by morning I'm kicking myself, whilst staring at my wardrobe and thinking " I have nothing to wear !!!!!"
I'm sure there's plenty of others that I should try (such as batch cooking, meal planning...)
What are your tips for being organised when going back to work ?
