The power of networking with working mums
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the Citymother’s lunch event. Anne Richards, CIO of Aberdeen Asset Management, presented her thoughts, perspectives and experience around being a working mother in the City. Despite spending all of my working week discussing the challenges of combining career and parenthood, I ALWAYS learn something new from EVERY working mother I meet.
Yesterday was a great reminder of this. Here is what I took away from the presentation:
1. A wonderful reminder about how positive and inspired you can feel after spending an hour talking to like-minded parents, all sharing the tips they have picked up along the way. We all need to do more of this!
2. Anne Richards challenged the feelings of guilt that consumes so many of us as we leave our children to go to work. Put simply, Anne says ‘I just don’t do guilt.’ When talking about the feeling that some of us have that in some way we are depriving our children by us going out to work, Anne is straight down the line: ‘it’s like your children asking for another bag of sweets and you saying no.’ I like this concept. Rather than thinking of us depriving our children by not being there 100% of the time, we are thinking of the longer term positive of our lifestyle choice: the impact of working on the future of our family health, happiness, finances, wellbeing and contribution to the world.
3. Anne shared a great tip around managing your school or your childcare provider. On answering a question from a delegate around feeling guilty that you can rarely make an event during school time, Anne’s response was: ‘make friends with your school.’ She went on to suggest how you could sit down with the teachers and explain what you can and can’t do and where you need their support. That way, they won’t bombard you with the continuous requests that only end up making us feel guilty and overwhelmed.
Another sound piece of advice was to discuss with your school-aged children which event of the term they would most like you to be there for – and then make sure you stick to this; or offer to do something with their friends on a Saturday. A very powerful comment Anne made was ‘your children just want to show you off because they are proud of you, so find an opportunity for them to do this.’
It’s true – you don’t have to be on the Parent’s Committee to make your children proud of you – think of other things you can do to make them proud of you – and that fit in with your working week. A huge thank you to Citymothers and Anne Richards. By Helen Letchfield