When UK schools shut during the March lockdown, the childcare and homeschooling fell disproportionately to the mothers. And their careers suffered. Here’s how to do it differently this time…
During the first lockdown, mothers’ careers were disproportionately affected.
We often earn less, because of time away from the workplace while on maternity leave, and so when two-parent households were deciding whose career would take precedence, and who would forfeit their work to take on homeschooling, guess who landed the latter?
The mums.
So many of the women I know who freelance around their children, or run businesses, had to pretty much quit for six months – and become full-time parents again. And they found it really hard. Understandably, as there was no choice involved.
This would have been the situation in my home, too, if the pandemic had happened a year earlier. Rich, my husband, was the higher earner. And so we’d have prioritised his work, while mine dropped away and I took on the childcare.
But because we’d launched our online course business The Robora in 2019, and we run it together, we could both continue working, just taking it in turns.
(I say ‘just’ – obviously it was tense and stressful; but we didn’t have to choose whose work would continue).
This time round, I’d love to see more women being given a CHOICE. Because feminism, in its most basic form, means being able to choose. Not having society, or the patriarchy, choose for us.
In order to help make this happen, I’ve created an online course that will help mothers to have a think about what they’d like to do, work-wise, moving forward. And I’d like to offer you a big whopper of a discount.
But first, in brief, let me tell you what the course is about…
So, it’s called Starting an online business. And it walks you through the necessary steps for going freelance or starting a business/’side hustle’.
This could mean turning a hobby into a money-maker, or taking your pre-pandemic/pre-kids skills and work experience and turning them into a career that can be done from home, around your kids.
In the course, there are coaching-style exercises, asking you questions that will get you thinking about the work-life you’d like. Because, let’s be honest, we don’t often get to focus on ourselves once kids come along.
And then there’s a module on confidence, because we all need a boost in that department. Especially right now. And a module on how you’re going make money from your new career. Lastly, I share the first steps for making this new career happen. The practical stuff.
If you’d like to join this online course, and have a think about yourself and your future career, you can use the coupon code THEEARLYHOURMUMS at checkout, and you’ll get the course for £19.99 (instead of £99).
I’d love to hear that you’ve signed up and have given yourself some space and time to think about YOU.