What do working mothers want?

I struggle with the concept of work/life balance, because this assumes that work is removed from life. But many working mothers do struggle with a balance in their lives. While I believe that time management is a big key, I also believe that much of it comes out of an inner struggle of what working mothers actually want.


When I was a child my mother worked but she was always around and I wanted to be married with kids and still have a job when I get older. As I grew older my outlook changed. When I got married I got a job the same month. I studied Engineering in school and came out with a second class upper but the only jobs i found were in Banks, I hated being alone at home after my husband left for work and i took the banking job because I wanted to earn my own money. I saw the job as simply a better option better than staying home doing nothing. I still believed that I was going to find a job as an engineer trainee but the reality of the Nigerian Labour market hit me hard.

I took the job as a marketer in a prominent bank and it has been hell since then,6 months after I joined the bank I got pregnant, my son is a year and a half now and while I start thinking of having a second child, I don’t know if I can wake up every morning to a job I certainly do not enjoy with two kids at home left with my nanny.

I believe if I work in a firm that allows its workers one or two hours break/lunch time, I would cope easily if I can pick up my kids from school and give them lunch before going back to work but unfortunately my current place of work has no break or lunch time and I am glued to work from 7; 30am to 6pm.

Why I thought this was important was because it made me think of how difficult it is for women to move up the ladder in various industries.

What would you do after years and years working at a higher level and then you begin questioning whether you want to work at all? It is a scary thought, when you imagine deciding on what may feel like throwing away a career.

• Do you really want to stay at home forever?

• How difficult will it be to get back to the workforce if you change your mind?

• Is this why so many women are leaving it so late to have a baby?

So many questions surround this time in a working mother’s life. It is difficult to throw caution to the wind, but the results could be regrettable if you do not. So I ask all of you out there

Welcome to my blog!

Hi,

I thought I should start a blog for Fellow mothers who work in Nigeria to come share ideas.I will be back soon to update with articles we can all learn from.
Cheers