FASHION

PARENTING
Juggling Motherhood
AND CAREER
Working moms have a lot on the go, but being realistic and having a sense of humour makes all the difference,
writes Nathalie Hodgson.
Most women this millennium are returning to work when their children
are still very young, without being questioned or judged. With the cost of
living on the rise, two incomes is what is required to keep a decent family
household or to maintain the lifestyle you once led but with additional
mouths to feed. So how do you balance work, love and play when no one
has the time? I spoke to two working mothers to share some valuable tips
on how it’s done.
Neesha Kumar, 30, Creative Director, decided to extend her three-month
maternity leave, dip into her annual leave bonus and eventually resigned,
after having her first child. ‘I would rather die than leave my little one so
young’, she thought to herself. But after six months she realised that this
was not financially viable; she had to return to work and decided to take
up a position that she been offered some time back. Returning to work
not only helped to pay the bills but it opened up new doors of valuable
experience, which has led her into opening up her own business (Neesha
Kumar Ltd).
‘The to-do list is so long that I am overwhelmed just looking at it’ Neesha
explains, ‘I am mentally racing back and forth between my responsibility
to my two children (six-year old girl and one-year old boy) and my
business. I can’t take sick days as this means I don’t get paid for that day
and the work is then a day late. There are simply not enough hours in the
day to accomplish what needs to get done, so I am often up until 2am or
later’.
39 MARCH 2015 | POTPOURRI