Looking after a baby is not a ‘wee break’
I understand now why my cousin guffawed so loudly while I sat in her house early on in my pregnancy, telling her I was looking forward to the wee “break” from work once I gave birth.
I’ve been a grafter since I was 15 in my first job as a Saturday girl on the perfume counter of a local pharmacy.
Being paid the princely sum of £2.80 an hour for my troubles, I worked hard, hooked on that new, sweet feeling of earning my own cash.
Thanks to my first few hard-earned pay packets, I finally got my hands on a beautiful beige Afghan coat I’d been eyeing up in the window of Miss Selfridge for weeks.
I still dream about that coat, and to this day curse the callous thief who nicked it from a nightclub cloakroom back in the early 2000s.
He did me a favour really as I hadn’t had it off my back for months when it was so cruelly taken from me, but it forever lives on in my memory and kick-started a lifelong commitment to giving it my all, no matter what job I’m doing.
Ever since then I strive to bring home the bucks to buy more coats in an attempt to fill the Afghan-shaped hole left behind.
But with more than two decades of working life now under my belt, I felt I’d paid my dues and finally deserved a bit of “me time”.
To be fair, I wasn’t as naive as I’m making myself sound. I thought I knew what was in store for me and was prepared for sleepless nights and days that turned to weeks which went by in a bubble, but I wasn’t.
I knew I’d have my hands full with my baby but didn’t really get the reality of what it would be like and honestly thought there would be more time for things I’d enjoy like my nails, reading and finally learning to use a tarot set I got for Christmas.
Fast forward a year and I too am guffawing at silly old me yapping on at my cousin.
She warned me maternity leave would be far from a walk in the park, something I get now and think about, laughing, as I spend my days walking through parks with the pram, so conscious this precious time I’ll never have again is quickly running out – even though it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I spend most of my time moaning.
After the first couple of months getting over the pregnancy and birth, our short time at home with our babies is over before most of us know it.
This is something I’ve become all to aware of recently so I’ve vowed to stop worrying so much about things like housework and start enjoying this precious period before I’m back at work to buy more coats.