Following a new path - re-training after children!
Posted on Tue, Feb 10, 2009
At some point after having babies and raising children, most parents, particularly mothers, will start to feel that a change is required, some new challenge, something with other adults perhaps, something more mentally stimulating than the next nappy, or the next feed. The offspring might be three days, three months, three years or thirty but at some point I think there is a need to venture beyond the garden gate.
For me, this point was when my second daughter was six months old. Still breastfeeding, with an older child just over two, I was ready for some new challenges and new opportunities. I will happily admit that much as I enjoyed being a full time stay at home mum, I did wonder whether it was actually easier to go out to work than “work” at home. And do mothers work. It isn’t all sitting around in each other’s houses drinking coffee!
At this point I had a think about my past life – pre-children, pre-marriage even, and what I wanted to do next; I had worked on farms, but with a baby and a toddler, the idea of spending fi fteen hours a day on a tractor or trimming sheep’s feet really didn’t appeal anymore. What I needed was something flexible, home based, well paid and enjoyable. Thinking through what knowledge, skills, expertise you have and what interests you is essential – then how does this fit with a new role and being a working mum? If you need help with this then the network of Business Links is a good place to start.
With a background in agriculture the obvious answer for me was to re-train as a farm secretary. I enrolled on a distance learning course for farm secretaries, spent (not all that many) hours at the computer in the evenings and updated my skills, re-learned things from my pre-children life and became adept at spreadsheets, balance sheets, writing a business plan, livestock regulations and wheat varieties.
Once I started to venture beyond the garden gate, I picked up bits and pieces of work as and when it suited me, mostly through word of mouth, but also by being prepared to do any sort of administration whether it was marketing, data input, book keeping or organising courses for farmers. It was great to be meeting other adults, going “out”, being an individual again. It was also scary; used to proverbially hiding behind my children, I felt rather lost without them. However, most people I have met through re-training and my subsequent working life have been understanding and flexible when faced with the challenges presented by a working mum and in this respect I have been very lucky.
After a couple of years of doing a bit of this, and a bit of that, I now go out of the house, out to work on the mornings my children are at nursery and school and I enjoy the benefits of being employed, earning a salary, meeting people and being useful – with the added increase in self confidence, financial security and general wellbeing that this has brought. My children are very happy at nursery and school and the extra time they now spend away from me has been invaluable for the development of their social skills and in relating to other adults.
I now work at Emerson College and, on the days when I am at my desk in the college, I meet all kinds of people, with all kinds of backgrounds and interests, but they all have one thing in common – they want to LEARN. Learn anything sometimes, but learn and Emerson offers opportunities for everyone to do part-time, full-time, weekend and short courses whatever their interest – creative writing, agriculture, storytelling and a new part-time course called “Time for a Change” which does what it says on the tin. I am still learning, each term I try a different course or subject so after bread making was biodynamic agriculture, next Advent celebrations for children and then … who knows? But I will keep learning, keep working and enjoying the mental stimulation, adult interaction, the increase in self-confidence and disposable income and the opportunity to think beyond the garden gate.
Written by Rebecca Johns, Registrar at Emerson College
Published in ABC Magazine – Winter 2007
To download a copy of the article, please follow this link: Following a New Path - ABC Magazine, Winter 2007