Your Maternity Leave is Over…How to Survive Going Back to Work!

Going back to work after maternity leave is hard!  It doesn’t matter if you are excited about going back to the ‘real world’ or dreading the 9 to 5 grind; it’s going to be a transition, so be easy on yourself.  Here are our 7 tips for transitioning your way back to work.

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1. Treat Yourself!
So the caveat here is you just came off maternity leave; so money might be tight.  However, if you can get yourself a shinny new outfit, shoes, new make up or a fresh haircut (pending what’s open in your area); something to make you feel great and excited for that first day and gives you the motivation to get out of those sweats. Check out Smithery Style to help you dress your new ‘mom bod’ or another option is renting clothes to keep your wardrobe fresh! The Sprout Collection is a maternity and non-maternity clothing subscription service based in Toronto.

2. Change…Limit It!
This doesn’t work in all circumstances of course, but if you can limit the number of changes at work in the first few months or year that definitely makes for an easier transition.  For example, if you can go back to work for the same department, same job or same boss is a lot less stress (pending your job) versus having to learn new skills, people, politics and so on!

3. Ease Your Way In…
Do you have an option to go back part-time at the beginning?  It can be a real shock to the system going from full-time mom to full-time mom plus (insert job title here), so consider working your way up by starting with three or four days a week.  

4. Flexibility
Once you start work, you’ll go from spending 24/7 with your cutie to seeing them much less during the week if you are working out of the house.  My son went to bed quite early at 6pm, so had I kept my pre-baby hours I would have never have seen him.  I changed my working hours so I could be home to spend time with him and I also talked to my boss about working from home once per week so I could enjoy my lunch and breaks with him.  Given these are COVID times, you may be working from home exclusively, so it will be important to discuss what is possible with your employer and not possible pending your childcare situation. Make sure to discuss the flexibility you are seeking with your boss/team before going back to work so that it is figured out well before you start!  After my second maternity leave, I completely changed up my work life and left my full-time job to run League of Moms and also do some consulting which is completely from home! It was a big risk BUT worth it for me!

6. Working from Home Hack
If you are working from home and your child is also home, then you’ll want to ‘leave’ every day to go to the office and then sneak back in through a backdoor or basement door. Young kids will have a hard time understanding why mommy is home but not hanging out with them, so make it easy on yourself and ‘leave’.

7. Hacks
It will take time to adjust to your #workingmom life so make it a little easy on yourself and outsource what you can!  From cleaning services to meal & grocery delivery services such as Fresh City Farms and Marble Meals.

Good luck with the process and if you have tips to share – add them in the comments!

Photo by Thiago Cerqueira on Unsplash