The Spring Back Guide

👀 READ CAPTION: THINGS WE START DOING AT THE END OF MAT/PAT LEAVE👩🏽‍🍼👨🏻‍🍼

GOOGLING👩🏾‍💻:Yes, an astronaut looks straightforward👩🏻‍🚀- zookeeper🦒 ? NOTHING wrong with these btw😂, and I’ve had clients make some incredible career changes… BUT - energy is precious. Slow + steady before we make life-altering decisions🐢Googling is a bit like running. What is it that’s truly panicking you right now🤔

HOMESICKNESS🤢:those big inhalations of baby’s hair😌Smelling their clothes (is it just me who’s into smelling everything?). That horrible pit of the stomach + the midnight anxiety😰 I FEEL you. But I promise the dread of the return is worse than the return. What’s your big fear? Write it down✍️Share that with a close friend (or me). You’d be surprised at what that does to this fear🤷‍♀️

2ND GUESSING CHILDCARE😬:Ok you’ve picked nursery. “What about [insert other nursery with a 2y long list]? What about all the 1:1 care baby needs? [they will be fine. And if they’re not fine, you change it.] What about all the bugs they get [they’re going to get them all at some point, whether it’s now or in 4y]” There’s no childcare choice without cons💯

LESS PATIENCE😤:you may not have noticed this one until reading this. When we have unresolved stress this can come out as a short fuse, with the baby, with your partner or with your parents/inlaws🤬This is normal btw before you beat yourself up. Be kind💜It’s a big unknown and you’ve never done this before.

WORRYING YOU’VE FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING😰:Things may have changed less than you think 😂. It’s normal to take a few days to get your head back ‘there’. EXPECT that there’ll be some childcare hiccups. Have a plan with your partner/support system to make it very clear who does emergency pickups to avoid miscommunication📱

RE-READING THE CONTRACT📄:If you’re not ready to end your maternity leave, that’s ok. Sometimes we plan for x months off, but change our minds. You’re ALLOWED to change your mind. You’re ALLOWED to want to see the full set of options📑

…If you’re doing any of these, you’re in the right place💜✨THERE IS NO PERFECT WAY TO GO BACK✨However.if you want help finding YOUR way, then..

✨ You’re not the only one. 👶💻 - do you feel …. Meh? 🤷‍♀️

It's official: “working mum” is out of fashion😬…

Let's break it down though 🧐. WHY is it out of fashion?

1. All mums ‘work’, right? There’s paid work, + unpaid mumming = work😅!
2. The majority of mums now work👩🏽‍🦱, when the majority used not to👵🏽. So for some it feels out of date to say ‘working mum’.
3. It excludes the Dads🧔🏼‍♂️ - almost all of whom are working. Facts!

I agree with ALL of these btw 🙌. But.

…I’m still calling us working mums for now 🤷‍♀️ .

Why?

By cancelling the name, we aren't able to describe "this group": who need specific support💜.

"This group" is at a biiiiig crunch point😖. And NEEDS special support: from our politicans🤓 our workplaces 💼, and people like me 👋. It’s why I am DM’d EVERY single day about a “working mum” problem since this biz was launched 3m ago 😟.

Cost of living, childcare, structural sexism, not-very-subtle maternity discrimination, w/mental load still on women.. etc. “This group” is up against a lot, and need help 💪.

Postnatal support is not famous for being great 😏... Throw in a back to work journey, with an unhealed birth injury❤️‍🩹, for example, and holy cr*p 🤯😱.

So - my view is that taking away the name of the group isn’t the most efficient way to affect change.

“But Letty, why can’t you just refer to them as working parents?”

Because: when we give birth, we go through enormous physical, social, mental and emotional changes 🧬 🩸🤱🤰🏻😴. We grow life for 9m. We nurture it for the 3+ infancy years after - where we are still no.1 for our little people. BFing is a huge resource too, if you choose to / are able to.

⚠️⚠️⚠️ I’m NOT denying the dads go through changes too! But it’s not to the same extent as those who give birth, AND I am not best placed to serve this group 😂 who have THEIR OWN unique challenges (Btw , and absolutely is 👏👨🏻‍🍼)

So: this account is specifically for working mums, working mums-to-be, AND the partners / blokes trying to understand their person's perspective better (I see you!! You are brilliant 🤩).

What are your thoughts 💭 ? And who can come up with a better name!?!👇

It’s been 7wks since launching for women to go back to work happy after babies 👶🏾💻, so thought I’d 👋  reintroduce myself to the now 2K of you (?!!?) 

I am Letty. It’s short for something unspellable

I’m Mum to a 4 year old + 2 year old, English 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ex-London now living in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Edinburgh (and won’t shut up about how great it is. Come visit!) 

I’m a Professional Coach who created the because of the HUGE gap of help for women going back to work after their babies, basically 🤷‍♀️ 👶🏾 💻. 

We often don’t know if, how, when to go back or even WHAT to go back to🤪🤷‍♀️ ….. and there’s no help for it (none that doesn’t cost a total fortune💸). So I thought I’d build the answer! 😅

Some more about me.. 

😀Likes: a challenge! pasta 🍝 and 🍕 , ☕️ , wine 🍷 , helping people, dancing, singing, Disney, dressing up, being silly…

😠Dislikes: the patriarchy 😏, pretentiousness, selfishness, people who make other people feel small. 👎 

⚽️Goals: to help 100k women go back to work feeling happy and confident in the next five years 🙌 🤩. Happy kids. 

😟Fears: life passing by, getting pregnant again 😂😅, spiders 🙅🏼‍♀️

😳Anxieties: all of them🤪? How long have you got!! 

🙂Qualities: Loyal - I will show up🦁. I think I’m quite fun 💃??

🫣Flaws: can be a bit my way or the highway sometimes. My husband will attest to this 😅. Perfectionist with an anxiety problem, probably. Caring too much about what people I don’t even like think?? Anyone else??! I’m probably too intense - I’ll go from Disney to politics in a hot minute 😬 🤣

🤔In another life I’d be : a dancer 🩰. What about you??

I've spent an absolutely NUTTY 1.5years designing, creating and filming this and am now going through the even nuttier process of distributing and sharing it all with you. I’m loving every second of it 🥰and working my 🍑 off to keep improving it 💪 . 

I’ve created The Guide itself 💻 📱 but also a podcast 🎙️ where I share other bad*ss women’s back to work stories, and also a weekly email 💌 stuffed with tips to Go Back Happy 💜 to check all this out.

Lovely to meet you! Like what this page is about? Wave!👋