Oooh....I couldn't do that....

is usually the standard response when people ask what I do for a living.  No, I haven't just told them that I spend my life knee deep in sewage or any other revolting job, neither have I told them the reality of being a working mum and the endless, thankless list of jobs that goes with that.  Truth is that I love my job, I can't think of any other job that I would rather do.  Admittedly I could do without the stress at times and it would be a lot better if we had more staff, more space, more equipment, but that's pretty much the same wherever you go.  

Someone once asked me if I feel guilty working fulltime and leaving Lottie in nursery from six months old.  I'll be honest, initially I did, I wondered why I was trusting my precious daughter with strangers, until another friend pointed out that's what the parents of the children that I look after are doing from the moment they are born.  Totally different ends of the spectrum, but that's when I stopped feeling guilty.  Lottie has a ball at nursery, she has a circle of friends who she loves and is in an environment where she thrives, why should I feel guilty for my child having fun?

Inevitably there is at least one "research" study done a year that shows that if you go to work, you are damaging your child, if you stay at home, you are damaging your child, if they don't participate in baby yoga, baby signing, baby massage and have playdates every other day, then you are damaging your child, but too many classes and you're a pushy parent!  Working mums often get negative press.  The image is portrayed as the mum who doesn't see her children, rushes through dinnertime and bedtime and then shoves them off to childcare the following morning whilst madly trying to brush her hair and wipe the baby sick from her clothes.  OK, so the last two statements do apply to me, I've been known to do both whilst trying to get out of the door for 6.45am, but I can honestly say that being a "working mum" (I hate that term - all mums are working mums!) isn't THAT bad, it's just a case of time management and when I invent the time-stopping device, I will be able to finally recover a bit more ME time!