Why I... write for mums
"Someone I knew – in her 30s and just married – felt like a ticking time bomb because management were expecting her to get pregnant and go off on maternity leave"
I write a column to support working mums. Evidence shows that women don’t have a great deal of confidence around money and often don’t know where to go for advice. So I feel like my column provides information that can help build their confidence.
My parents split up when I was five and my father started a new family. We were very reliant on my mum – she has always worked but it was part-time because she wanted to be around for her children.
I very much remember living on a budget when I was growing up – my mum was always having to organise and manage. That massively motivated me to have a career – it’s been my driving factor. To have a strong sense of financial security is huge for me.
I had trouble having a child. My husband and I tried for a few years. We went through fertility treatment and it didn’t work. We were told it was unlikely to happen so I made the decision to get on with my career. I started a new job with a big company five years ago. Four months later, I was pregnant.
I’ve had a really positive experience where I work but my employer is very proactive and diversity is high on our agenda, so it’s easy for me to have a rose-tinted view of the possibilities. I got promoted a week before I went on maternity leave and then again the year after I came back – so having a child didn’t hold me back.
I put in so much more effort and became far more efficient, profitable and loyal to my company because they accommodated what I needed for my family situation.
Someone I knew in a previous workplace said she felt like a ticking time bomb because she got to her mid-thirties, had just got married and she just knew that senior management were waiting for her to go off and have a child and she didn’t get a promotion for quite a few years.
There are some serious money issues that working parents need to know, specifically relating to child benefits and childcare vouchers. Women, especially, sometimes lack the guidance they need. My column, hopefully, helps address that.
I’ve never been a writer before. It’s been a real learning curve. I’m my target audience so I write what I think I’d want to read. I think I probably write the way I speak.