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Returning to work after becoming a parent can be daunting with a capital D (or at least for some). It can feel like the first day of secondary school all over again. You’ve been to school for several years before, you know the general premise, but this feels like a whole new ball game.

Patsy and I launched The Wobbly Middle, a podcast and thought space, for women like us navigating their careers in midlife. After nearly 15 years in the same industry and a decade at the same company I found the idea of new roles or a whole new industry daunting and the path often unclear.

The PR and marketing industry is many things, but fast-paced and high pressure are some of the more accurate phrases I’d use to describe it.

You gotta fight, for your right, to party/parental leave

It’s been 15 years since I returned to work from my first maternity leave. Whilst I’m grateful for the support and flexibility I received during that return and my second mat leave, I’ve more recently been thinking about the ongoing need to support mums in the workplace.

There is a potential new client on the horizon, and you have been asked to lead the pitch. Or perhaps you are about to launch, and you know next week it is going to be full on campaign mode. For the past few weeks, you have been experiencing night sweats and are not sleeping that well. Getting the kids out the door to school zaps your energy before you have even started your commute into work. The key fob is left on the dining room table. Oh, and did someone just mention it was World Book Day tomorrow!

I was nervous about returning to work in an agency, I needn’t have been…

Before I start - I want to share some context at the top of this piece. Firstly, I am no expert when it comes to neurodiversity or being a parent to a child with additional needs. My son is four and neurodivergent. To be honest I have been learning as I go and still am trying to navigate this journey.

When I was getting ready to return to work last year after having my first child, I felt many things - sad about leaving my daughter after a year of maternity leave, excited about being back in the agency I love, curious as to how things had moved on, but mostly pretty daunted.

This time last year the phrase ‘KIT days’ was simply a buzzword I’d heard in the office a few times. Nowadays, when I type the word ‘kit’ into my phone it automatically suggests ‘day’ and ‘days’ as the following, suggesting how often I use the phrase

Navigating the Sleep Struggle: A Working Mum's Journey to Well-Rested Bliss