When you spend up to year staring at your shiny new baby, it’s easy to get cold feet about having to go back to the office. You fill your days with baby group and coffee mornings, playdates and simply just vegging out exhausted with your new baby. The clock is ticking, though, and going back to work after maternity leave is just around the corner.
The idea that you’ll have to leave your baby? Not a nice one! It’s time spent away from the changes that they’re going to make. When you’ve watched your squashed up newborn grow into a rolling, babbling baby, it’s easy to feel odd about what you’re missing when you go back to work. There’s also the other worries about how you’ll keep your work clothes baby sick-free before you get to the office and how you’ll ever get the cartoon theme tunes out of your head throughout the day.
The good news is that going back to work doesn’t mean that you’re missing out on your baby. Firstly, it’s good for your children to see you achieve, but also there are options for you to not have to slog it out in an office all day long. With the right employer, you could work from home. Failing that, you could start your own business. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have premises to work from, not when services like https://physicaladdress.com/ are there to help you to look more professional. You get a chance to rediscover the “you” that you are without the new baby – you’re still a vital, valid person in this world, even when you have children.
When you decide it’s time to head back to work, you need to give yourself the time to feel overwhelmed so that you can get over it. You then need to decide which venue that you plan to go down. Are you going to go back to the 9 to 5 or are you going to work from home and do things differently? No matter what you decide to do, you have to choose soon before your maternity pay runs out. If you do plan to work outside the home, it’s time to go shopping. You have an entire wardrobe to buy! No more leggings and t-shirts: it’s all about the sharp suits and knowing how to dress to impress.
You should also consider some meditation. Those moments when you leave the house and your baby are not easy, but positive affirmations about your choices are a good place to start. Not only will you feel good about what you’re going to do, you’ll be able to do it with confidence. You deserve to choose yourself sometimes, and your baby is going to benefit from this choice because you are making it for you!
Your employer should be supportive of your choice to go back to work, and if you think it’s not going to work for you, then explore your options. Going back after maternity leave is a big deal – don’t forget that.