Friday, April 9, 2010

Return to work stories

CareerMums users want to hear your experiences with returning to work.

Was it an easy transition? How did you cope with childcare? How did you cope with the work and family balancing act? In hindsight, what would you have done differently?

Sharing your experiences will help other women about to head back to work.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I returned to work a year and a half ago when my daughter was 10months old. I decided that the best way for me to cope returning to work after having 11 months off was to gradually return to work (luckily for me my employer was completely supportive of this). My daughter was going into childcare so about 2 months before returning to work I would take her about twice a week for 1 - 2 hours just to familiarize her with the staff and the centre. I stayed with her when we did this so when it came to the time of actually leaving her it made the transition much easier! (mind you there was tears everyday for about 6 months!)

One thing that also helped was being prepared for the week ahead. Having a meal plan and food ready to go helped heaps. We found that by cooking slow cooker meals on the days I worked helped heaps! Dinner was ready for us when we got home and meant that we got to spend time with the little one before bed time :)

Returning to work is one of the most challenging things you go through. Its very emotional and draining to begin with but be patient it gets better and it’s a matter of finding that balance and working out what works for your family!!

CareerMums said...

Thanks for sharing your story. You are so right when you say that it is emotionally draining to start with but it gets better. Great tips on meal planning. I hear this tip all the time from people working on their work family balance.