Going Back to Work After Babies
It’s a big deal to go back to work after you’ve had a baby. Trying to go back to your career when you have a child at home and balancing day care trips and babysitters and school pickups and drop-offs is not easy.
The world is not built for parents. We are expected to raise children like we don’t have bills to pay and pay our bills like we don’t have children.
And it’s not the easiest thing to do considering the irony in this that the world needs a workforce.
They don’t make it easy. Going back to work after you’ve had kids is a good life switch, and a baby changes everything.
From the way that you prioritize your day to the way that you think about yourself. It can even make you question what you thought you wanted when it came to your career.
Going Back to Work
For some parents, going back to work means utilizing the help of family members like grandparents.
But not everybody has a village.
Leaning on daycare can seem like a great idea, but it can often be really expensive. So it feels like you’re going to be going back to work for nothing, and that is often the case.
You’re going back to work, and all of your wages go into daycare bills.
The one thing you have to remember is that being able to remain consistent in your career is going to help you out later in life once the kids have grown up and you’re wondering what to do with yourself.
Here are some tips to help make going back to work after you’ve had your baby significantly easier.
- Be patient with yourself. One of the best pieces of advice you could be given when it comes to going back to work after you’ve had kids is to take your time and be patient.
There is no such thing as perfection, and getting back into the swing of your job is going to take some time. It’s universal advice for most careers, so give yourself some breathing room and make sure that you’ve avoided scheduling any big presentations or client meetings on your first.
You need to sink back into it and make sure that you are feeling rested and you’ve made time to pump if you’re breastfeeding. - Work with your daycare. Whether it’s a daycare that you’re using or it’s the daycare of grandparents, you need to be able to build trust in them.
You have to feel confident that your baby is going to be loved and careful while you’re not there and going to follow your values. For example, if you don’t want your child to cry out, then the daycare or the grandparents that look after your children shouldn’t be doing it either.
You have to get to know the caregivers before you get back to the office so that you can feel confident that you’ve been leaving your child with somebody that you trust. - Think about a career change. If going back to your old job after you’ve had your kids fills you with dread, then it might be time to think about what else you could be doing.
A career change could make a big difference to how confident you feel about going back to work again, and it’s worth it if it’s going to make you feel good while your children are in childcare.