OK listen, I’ve sat here and tried to write M-otherhood stuff so many times over the last few weeks and months. The few weeks and months that saw me turn lawyer to represent myself in court to claim official parentdom to our second born child. A mad dash panic to get our second born child’s passport in time to go on the only holiday we’ve managed this year. A manic three day holiday that consisted of parenting (but officially this time) in a different country, And, winding myself back up, one vertebrae at a time, to Working Mother Mode. So in terms of writing about it, well, I worry that I’m boring because this is just real, ordinary life now isn’t it? The normal service that empties my cup in the most wonderful way, but still, most days it ends up empty. Granted most people don’t need to prove their suitability to mother their own child in a court of law, but aside from that, for me, it’s the mundanity that is newsworthy! I’m here now, mother of two, out the other side of maternity leave and sleep deprivation (pretty much) and just cracking on with a hideously messy house and not enough impetus to clean it. (It’s the definition of madness - doing the same thing twice and expecting a different outcome than my kids taking out whatever it is I’ve just put away).
Anyway, real talk aside, I’m trying to grapple with the winding back up to work bit. Because losing your paid job whilst doing your unpaid one is a gut-wrench and a half. According to the internet (my failsafe source of unfair motherhood knowledge is @mother_pukka) 54,000 women a year are being made redundant every year ‘for having a baby’. In essence, and in her words, ‘More women hit the maternal wall before they hit the glass ceiling. Promote part-time workers, stop making women redundant on maternity leave, and offer flexible working.’ Hear hear!