Are you riding the 'jugglenaught'?
Louisa Houghton
Head of Internal Communications, B2B at VMO2. Storyteller, writer, maverick. ??
From pregnancy to having babies who become toddlers, who become small children, who become larger children, who become teenagers, who become young adults, throw in dogs, couple of cats, a few chickens and several thousand bees.
My life can feel like living in a washing machine on spin cycle.
So today I'm taking a look back at the archives. To laugh at my naivety and celebrate my tenacity.
And if you, like me, are somewhere on this journey - stick with it. Try to take the curve balls, surprises and stresses in your stride. It's never easy, but after all these years I still believe it 100% that riding this crazy 'jugglenaught' is worth it.
11 November 2005 - Maternity Manifesto
I wrote this when I was ten months pregnant with our first child, William, and about to go on maternity leave. Little did I know he'd be two weeks late - a much longer wait than I was expecting.
Some thoughts on life post-baby, but don’t hold me to all of them ??
I will not:
15 November 2005 - The Underworld
It’s official, I am now part of the world you never see when you’re at work. A world of Yummie Mummies, pensioners and the rarely glimpsed, bemused-looking maternity-weeble (that would be me)waddling around wondering what the hell happened to them.
6 October 2009 - Flexibility
Mothers are difficult people to employ. So many businesses can’t get their heads around flexible working. Surely if you make yourself available via iPhone/laptop etc and do your work to a high standard, on time and on budget it shouldn’t matter where or when that work is done?
The problem is that it does matter. It matters a lot. Companies like ‘bums on seats;’ to be able to physically see the people they employ. This was a problem when I went back to work after having William, even working 1/2 a day out of 5 from home proved such an issue that I ended up having to come in for that 1/2 day rather than working remotely.
Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be able to go back to the corporate world I know so well and love being a part of. You cannot have it all. You cannot raise your children yourself and expect to be able to come back to work on a flexible basis, to the same standard you did before becoming a mother.
I do see that it’s difficult for companies to change their cultures, but sometimes I wonder what all my education/career was for? Maybe I’d have been better off having children at 20 and going back to work now, after having brought them up. Who knows. It does sometimes seem like a terrible waste of my time to have put all that work in and ultimately end up doing the ironing/cleaning the bathrooms etc.
You can’t have it all, but I’m going to look for the middle ground and I won’t give up until I’ve found it. I’ve put too much in to quit now.
23 February 2010 - Working
Am now a fully-fledged freelance consultant (hence blog-silence for the past month). Working on a PR project and now an internal comms placement until May. Finally all my networking paid off, I held my nerve and now work 2 days a week but in my own time. Thankfully my current client is very kind and understanding about the boys, happy for me to rush off for pre-school pick-ups when I need to. My faith in modern working has been restored!
Life is now a precarious balance between working, cooking, housework and 2 boisterous boys. I have never been busier but am thrilled to be using my brain again – and earning money. I have found it very hard not to earn, and now I’m contributing financially again the world feels very different. For starters I can actually buy things without having to feel that I need to justify why each time (as a result I’m now the proud owner of a new Nespresso).
I love being a mother but it’s important to me that I have an identity in my own right. Today the boys are both at Sunflowers all day, if I wasn’t working it’d be a trip to the gym and the ironing. I’m very happy not to be doing either!
20 September 2018 - Switching from work to life and back again
The only way to survive working full-time and managing a family and menagerie, is to become the most efficient, organised person possible. Every single minute of your day needs to be catalogued and aligned to a specific activity if you’re going to fit it all in and not forget anything or anyone.
In my case this can prove challenging, as I’m naturally an extremely lazy, disorganised and impractical person.
iPhone alerts are fundamental. If notifications aren’t set, it ain’t gonna happen.
Days are invariably broken up into bite-size chunks of time, an example of which would be:
06:20 – Alarm goes off (Today Programme). Press SNOOZE. Go back to sleep.
06:30 – Alarm goes off again (Headlines). Listen.
06.38 – Headlines end. Shuffle into the shower.
06:45 – Hair and Make-up.
07:00 – Yell at boys to wake up (Eddie) or go upstairs, draw curtains and say “it’s morning.” (Me)
07:10 – Breakfast – argument about who’s laying the table/having what for breakfast/eating, not eating enough etc.
07:40 – Teeth, faces, hands, pack for school
07:50 – Time to go. No one is ready. More yelling (both).
08:00 – Go to school/turn on laptop and check email to start the working bit of the day
08:30 – Walk dog
09:00 – Second stovetop
12:00 – Lunch 14:00 – Walk dog
15:45 – Collect James, Will gets home
17:00 – Feed dog
18:00 – Boys supper
19:00 – Put chickens to bed
20:00 – Our supper. Suggest boys go to bed.
20:30 – Supper finished. Yell at boys to go to bed.
21:00 – Boys still not in bed. Continue yelling at slightly higher pitch and volume.
21:30 – Boys asleep. Put on a recorded Versailles, Holby, Killing Eve, Sharp Little Objects
22:00 – Wake up on sofa. Give up on film, put dog out, go to bed.
22:30 – All asleep
And repeat. Groundhog day.
#storytelling #culture #communication #employeeengagement #career
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Louisa Houghton is a storyteller and employee engagement specialist. She's also many other things, including bee keeper, guitar player and German Shepherd despairer (if that wasn't a thing, it is now). Louisa is all about keeping it real, dispensing with the fluff and having some fun. She is a firm believer in the extraordinary everywhere. Magic can always be found if you look for it.
Contact Louisa:
?? Send a DM | ?? Ring my bell | ?? Email [email protected]
Senior Commercial Leader | Strategy | Transformation | Payments | Finance | Telco
1 周Jugglenaught - that’s a keeper!
Navigate your next career move with confidence - High impact coaching for midlife leaders to take back control & finally get the work & lifestyle they deserve | ??30 Day Sprint to Fast Track Your Career With Confidence??
2 周You’ve forgotten ageing parents who now act time children ??