It’s almost that time of year again, and whether you have older children or little ones just starting out, September can be an exciting and nerve-wracking time for both parents and kids! Although there is a frenzied approach to the September kickoff, we need to remember that the school year lasts ten months and needs the focus of parental engagement and management throughout. The working mum might not know what to do, as she tries to balance the vocations associated with her career, alongside the responsibility of managing the kids. This can be so overwhelming, that you might feel as if you are on a precarious tightrope in a circus, as you plan your business lunches, drive the kid’s back-and-forth to their piano lessons or ballet, arrange to meet with the teachers and so on. When you do feel a bit loony and in need of a good vent, make sure you’ve got an online coaching website bookmarked for some aid and support! In the meantime, with some careful preparation, you and your kids can look forward to a happy school experience year-round! We have some useful tips to help you achieve this.
Keep in Touch with the Classroom
Maintaining a relationship with your son or daughter’s school can help you keep abreast of all developments that affect your child’s education. You should consider meeting the teachers a couple of weeks in advance, especially in the case of young children, as the kids may be less fearful if you introduce them to their new classroom environment ahead of time. Get a hold of a calendar of events from the school, so that you know how to follow along with your child’s adventures. As time goes by, remember any thoughts or questions that you might have and bring them to those Parent/Teacher nights, but don’t be afraid to get in touch with your teacher earlier than that, should you see any problems arising. Finally, plan on attending PTA meetings regularly, and if time allows, volunteer to help with school fund-raisers or bake sales. This will allow you to meet and get to know other parents and children, so that you can see who your child is socialising with, at the same time as you make some potentially beneficial new contacts and friends.
Bring the Classroom to Your Home
When it comes to a potentially successful school year ahead, it’s all about communicating and organising. Remember, that your children will want to feel as if they have some input and control over what is ahead and you should involve them in this planning, to make sure that their opinions are heard within the decision-making process. Before school begins, get them to help you set up a homework-station where they’ll feel comfortable studying. When they have decided, put all those supplies and storage boxes in place, so that their school work can feel structured and organised. Create a large wall calendar for parents and kids to keep track of holidays, tests, and extra-curricular activities. Make a point of gathering everybody together on a Sunday, so that the upcoming week can be discussed and the process of planning can be viewed as an inclusive and fun-filled family event.
What is Your Plan of Action?
We all know that we can’t plan for everything. Every now and again, the babysitter that you had arranged for after school could come down with the flu and be stuck in bed, or the child entrusted with the key could lose it on the bus ride home, somehow. It’s important for you and your kids to discuss potential emergencies and have a plan of action at the ready. Keep the lines of communication open and periodically check in with your kids to see if they’ve got concerns. As busy working mums, we might still find ourselves apprehensive about the school routine, worrying that homework might go unfinished or that Susie’s not getting enough one-on-one time with her teacher. And you add that to your Monday morning deadline and Wednesday’s marketing presentation, and you’ve got a lot on your hands and mind! When everything seems to be getting on top of you, now is the time to look for professional coaching. A good Life Coach can help you to understand how to strike a balance between home and work, while ensuring that the school year progresses smoothly all the way through to the end.
Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers online coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.
It’s almost that time of year again, and whether you have older children or little ones just starting out, September can be an exciting and nerve-wracking time for both parents and kids! Although there is a frenzied approach to the September kickoff, we need to remember that the school year lasts ten months and needs the focus of parental engagement and management throughout. The working mum might not know what to do, as she tries to balance the vocations associated with her career, alongside the responsibility of managing the kids. This can be so overwhelming, that you might feel as if you are on a precarious tightrope in a circus, as you plan your business lunches, drive the kid’s back-and-forth to their piano lessons or ballet, arrange to meet with the teachers and so on. When you do feel a bit loony and in need of a good vent, make sure you’ve got an online coaching website bookmarked for some aid and support! In the meantime, with some careful preparation, you and your kids can look forward to a happy school experience year-round! Follow the helpful pointers below to make your year a success.
Keep in Touch with the Classroom
Maintaining a relationship with your son or daughter’s school can help you keep abreast of all developments that affect your child’s education. You should consider meeting the teachers a couple of weeks in advance, especially in the case of young children, as the kids may be less fearful if you introduce them to their new classroom environment ahead of time. If the school has a curriculum or calendar available, take one and keep it handy to follow along with your child’s progress. Keep track of any questions or concerns and address them at Parent-Teacher interview nights, but ask your teacher to contact you earlier should any significant problems arise. Make sure that you go to all those PTA meetings whenever they take place and if you have the spare time, make yourself a volunteer for fund-raising events or those bake sales. This will allow you to meet and get to know other parents and children, so that you can see who your child is socialising with, at the same time as you make some potentially beneficial new contacts and friends.
Bring the Classroom to Your Home
When it comes to a potentially successful school year ahead, it’s all about communicating and organising. Involving your children in planning and decision-making validates their opinions and gives them a sense of control over their educational experience. Before school begins, get them to help you set up a homework-station where they’ll feel comfortable studying. Stock the area with supplies and storage tools to keep school work and clutter filed and ordered. On the wall nearby, put up a large calendar to help both parents and children keep track of any out of school activities, important tests or upcoming holidays. Make a point of gathering everybody together on a Sunday, so that the upcoming week can be discussed and the process of planning can be viewed as an inclusive and fun-filled family event.
What is Your Plan of Action?
It would be nice if we could plan for everything. Your after-school baby-sitter might cancel last minute if she’s stuck in bed with a sudden bout of the flu, or your latch-key child might forget his key on the bus ride home. This is when you have to be ready for anything and have a plan of action in the back of your mind. Keep the lines of communication open and periodically check in with your kids to see if they’ve got concerns. As busy working mums, we might still find ourselves apprehensive about the school routine, worrying that homework might go unfinished or that Susie’s not getting enough one-on-one time with her teacher. No wonder you have a lot to do, as you add all this worry to the Monday morning work deadlines or upcoming midweek marketing meetings! When the responsibility seems unmanageable, that’s the perfect time for some professional coaching. A good Life Coach can help you to understand how to strike a balance between home and work, while ensuring that the school year progresses smoothly all the way through to the end.
Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers online coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.
Now that you have welcomed your new arrival into your arms, it’s time to think about getting back to work and resuming your career. Everything happened so quickly and it has been a whirlwind, so the fact that you have not thought much about your career and employer over this time is to be understood. The time to transition back to the real world is rapidly approaching and this can be quite a bumpy transition, to put it mildly.
It is common for a woman in your position to feel uncertain, confused and a little intimidated. This is quite normal and many women turn to online coaching, to ensure that they make that walk back to work from a position of strength.
You may well have determined that a brand-new career is for you and it’s time to move away from your old employer for one reason or another, so you will need to gather everything around you and build a powerful stance as you approach prospective new employers. This is the time to fully understand your skill set and to begin calculating why an employer really cannot do without you on the team. This is not the time for nagging worries and you have to develop assertiveness and a supreme confidence, for best results.
Start afresh with a clear mind and a clean sheet of paper and notate all the skills that you have. Go all the way back to school and college and remember all the skills that you picked up there, as well as anything that you can remember from previous jobs and other employment. In a prominent position, detail the undoubted skills that you picked up as an organiser and planner, most recently as you developed your new family! Don’t think for a minute that skills must be the subject of some kind of paper qualification, given out by a college, university or other organisation, as the employer will certainly be looking at everything. In these days, when it is difficult to find good employees, an employer will be looking for dedication, self-assurance, self-confidence and an ability to be a self-starter.
If you do not have a tremendous amount of formal education, never be disheartened. Any employee willing to go the extra distance and over-deliver for the employer is worth her weight in gold, believe me. The would-be employer will see this in you and will be more than willing to add you to their team.
These days, online coaching can help you to put everything in perspective and help you to draw out all of your abilities, expertise and capabilities. Sometimes we get so caught up in the moment and with everything else that we have going on, that we overlook or forget what we can really bring to the table. Thankfully, professional coaching can also help to balance your challenges when it comes to career and family life.
Whether you are going toward pastures new, or going back toward the old employer, you need to be in a very strong position, either way. Make sure that you sell yourself appropriately and enjoy your new life!!
Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.
Tags: coaching for women, coaching mums, online coaching, professional coaching, success coaching
It is natural to feel elements of guilt from time to time when you are a working mum. You sometimes feel as if you are doing the wrong thing all the time, even when you are doing your best. If you have taken a decision to look after your children at home, you might feel that some people consider that you are not “pulling your weight” and contributing enough. If you decide to go back to work after childbirth, you feel guilty about that option as well and feel that some people are criticising you for not giving enough attention to your children. Surely, you can’t win? You are not alone in feeling this way and rest assured that this kind of torment is quite usual; it might be a good idea for you to consider professional coaching? Thankfully, online coaching can help you focus on what is positive and what others in your position are doing and help you to prepare correctly for your life ahead.
If you have decided to resume a career or have decided to strike out on your own, establishing your own business, good for you! There’s nothing wrong with your decision and if you want to be successful, you need to be at peace with yourself. A working mum has everything to be thankful for and she should be confident that she is providing for her family and for herself, very well.
You know how you sometimes feel guilty about a situation when you are confused and do not know all the facts? There is a danger that you do not know all the facts about your given situation. Come out of the darkness and understand all the facts, reducing your stress level to manageable positions. By being informed in this way, you can assess all the risks and opportunities presented to you and form a highly educated view of the situation. By finding out all these facts, you will have demonstrated a great deal of internal strength and this makes you feel so much better as well.
It is important that you have positive people all around you, who will support you. All those naysayers need to be in the far distance and better yet, you should creatively erase their contact details! If you surround yourself with a very important group of positive people, you can bounce off any challenges you might fear and will be a lot stronger as a result of this feedback. This is not to say that you should delegate all the problem-solving to them, quite the opposite. Contribute to this group pro-actively and understand that it represents a two-way street. Yet another valuable source of support for you can be found within online coaching.
Remember to travel light when you are getting ready for your big challenge. Effectively, this means that you should clear out all the baggage around you that represents anything you could consider inappropriate. Create a very positive workspace all around you, which is very important if you are working from home, have your own business or are telecommuting. When your environment is clear all around you, this will make you feel far more productive and you will be ready and focused for your day ahead.
Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!
Tags: coaching for women, coaching mums, online coaching, professional coaching, success coaching
As a working mom, it’s often incredibly difficult to find the time to reach any semblance of balance while being stretched all directions throughout each and every day. These days, it seems that unless you’ve got a special gift for effective time management, it’s just not possible to find enough time to take care of all the needs of your children, your job, your housework and the myriad of other tasks that are always so necessary.
When we choose to put things off until tomorrow – or the next day, we usually end up feeling guilty about it, and unfortunately this course of action only serves to magnify our daily problems. Budgeting can be quite a challenge and if you only have a limited source of income you will always feel pressured to spend it on the kids and other household items, relegating yourself to last place in the pecking order.
As a working mother, you have to keep in mind one crucial point – you represent the “engine” that keeps the whole family going, and without you being at your best, other aspects of the family machine simply won’t work as well. Therefore, relegate any feelings of guilt to the back of your mind and understand that any time you invest in yourself is an investment in everything around you, your kids and your overall life. It’s essential that you feel good about yourself or, with the passage of time, you’ll feel increasingly burdened, and put yourself in a situation where depression could take hold and create a never-ending downward spiral.
One of the most crucial goals for you to work toward should be to establish a solid support network all around you. It’s a good idea to remember to lean on your close friends for support – you know who they are, they’re the true friends you can always turn to in situations like these at any time. Don’t forget though, that this kind of support is a two-way street. You may already have close family members who help you out, but don’t be afraid to seek the help of a professional coaching expert, specifically coaching for women in your situation as well.
Hopefully you can find a good friend who is willing to become a babysitter for you, so that you can take that special “me” time. If you try hard enough, there’s always a way to find a little bit of extra time to make yourself feel “yummy,” instead of slummy! Always keep in mind that no matter how much chaos seems to reign everywhere around you on a daily basis, you have to take control over the factors that you can manage.
Looking and feeling fabulous on a low budget is not that difficult. Your toughest challenge will be in setting aside the necessary time to truly pamper yourself. Once you accept this as a priority, pay attention to the essential elements.
The best thing you can do for yourself on a daily basis is to commit to an exercise routine, and we don’t mean carrying around big bags of groceries or tidying up your home! A concerted period of cardiovascular work is perfect, or you can event start out by using a small set of hand weights while walking around the neighbourhood.
Before you know it you’ll feel better physically and mentally, and your skin tone will even start to shine brightly again. You can pick up supplies to do a really great home manicure and pedicure, schedule a visit to a beautician or hairstylist and just focus on your personal time in the bathroom more often.
Feeling good is a state of mind. This process usually begins with a renewed focus on setting aside time for you, and then giving this time an equal priority.
For more hints and tips on how to feel great as a low-budget mum, check out the numerous online life coaching resources available!
Amanda Alexander is the Founder and Inspiration behind Coaching Mums. She’s a distinguished ICF accredited coach, who for almost seven years now, has been bringing a new feeling of hope into the lives of working mums from around the world, showing them how to discard their guilt, rediscover their passions and to have a lot more fun! For amazing articles and truly effective professional coaching tips, sign up to get “Inspire” right away, our absolutely outstanding free newsletter!
Tags: (coaching, business, coaching for women, life coaching, mom, mother, mum, professional coaching, therapy
