It’s funny how hindsight is so 20/20.
At this stage of my pregnancy with Grace and Josephine, I was pretty much “coasting” at work. I’d handed off all my main projects to those who were covering for me, worked from home a lot in the last few weeks, and generally wasn’t stressed about what would happen when I was gone because I knew the team had me covered. When I had the baby, I turned off my work email and literally didn’t glance at it until 3 months later, when I was preparing to come back.
I look back on that feeling of preparation now and think, “Gosh, what an absolute luxury.”
Say what you will about corporate and agency life, but I do miss the team environment and security (both from an income and general perspective) that came with it. Very much so. The “9-5 life” has so many amazing benefits that one can only begin to understand once they’re on their own and don’t have them.
Self-employed life is amazing for so many reasons, but one area that it falls absolutely flat is with maternity leave. What I wouldn’t give for someone to take the work reins right now so I could focus solely on delivery/taking care of a newborn and be paid while doing it. To feel like they had it all covered — that no stone was left unturned — and to fully immerse myself in this special stage of life filled with a thousand adjustments on the horizon.
But alas, here we are. I’m grateful for the position I’m in, don’t get me wrong. But I’m also anxious, particularly for the next few months, and preparing for it has been an entirely new experience onto itself.
Taking A Maternity Leave While Being Self Employed: Here’s My Plan
What’s the big deal? Well, I have contracts and obligations that I need to create content for. Going “dark” on my site or social media would be detrimental — both from a traction and site perspective — as I’m very much in a growth phase where consistency is vital. Not responding to emails or outreach out could mean missed opportunities, and thus, missed income. Both are things I can’t afford to lose right now. Net, net — If I don’t do the work, the work doesn’t get done. And so, the lone soldier marches on!
“Maternity Leave” While Self Employed. How Have I Prepared? Am I Taking One?
With all that in mind, I’ve had to be very intentional about how my time has been spent over the past few months as I prepared for baby.
Here’s how I’ve prepared.
My main focus with preparation has been this site! Starting in January, I’ve pre-written posts when I could, in addition to creating all the content for that current week. It’s been a slow and long journey, but I’ve somehow been able to complete a decent amount of pre-scheduled, new content! Which I’m very proud of.
I have multiple long-term contracts that I requested the creative briefs on months in advance, and I pre-wrote all that content too, so that it’s fully completed. Thus, all of my current paid content until May is already done.
I also realized that I have a ton of content written in the past that I’m proud of, but it hasn’t been seen in a while. So why not re-surface some of those pieces?!
I just wrapped up my final content creation assignment, and will be pausing both content creation and consulting jobs until I feel able to dive back in again. (Maybe May or June? Going to gauge that based off of how I feel when the time comes.)
So, am I taking a maternity leave?
Yes and no.
With all the above in play, I currently have about 5 weeks of pre-scheduled content ready to rock and roll. Which means for the first 5 weeks of baby, a lot of the heavy lifting for posts is already done, and I can focus on less time-consuming things like checking emails and social media.
All that said, I do have about a post per week planned that I’ll be writing in real time/that week! Things like telling the eventual story of baby’s delivery, how I’m dressing the post-baby bump, impromptu sale roundups that I’m loving, and things that I’d like to reflect on/share that I’m not able to pre-write. I’m really looking forward to continuing to write and create, even though I’ll likely be exhausted while doing so, because it’s truly what I LOVE doing and honestly it’ll be a nice form of “me time” amongst the chaos.
So while I’ll never really be “off,” I do believe I have set myself up to have a manageable amount of work to do while still allowing for my main focus to be on baby, and my family.
Here’s what to expect over the next few months!
Really, it’s business as usual! I’ll have between 4 – 5 posts per week that are a mixture of new and re-surfaced content. I hope all of it will be inspiring, insightful, and fun to read for you. I’m excited to have a LOT of goodness in store — room reveals, personal reflections, the works. I do hope you’ll keep coming back on the daily to check it all out!
One series I’ll be more sporadic about for a bit is “That Charming Roundup,” starting next week. That’s because those link roundups are actually are pretty time consuming to find and curate, and I don’t anticipate I’ll be doing a ton of “internet browsing” at first. Any free time I have will be spent being caring for a newborn/with the family and, ya know, maybe even napping or showering when I can. (Ha!) I’ve heard feedback that those posts are some of your favorites, so I’ll still be sharing roundups when I can, but it likely won’t be on a weekly basis for a few months until I’m able to get more of a routine back. I hope you understand!
One place I’ll try and remain as active and in-the-now as possible is Instagram, of course! So as always, be sure to follow along there as I share our journey. I’m not one to pick up my phone when there’s a more urgent priority around me, especially in such an important time when my family will need all hands on deck, so I do hope you’ll be patient if I’m quiet some days. I know you will, and I know you’ll understand. You guys are seriously the best.
Other than that — I do hope you’ll keep this corner of the internet on your daily docket. It truly means the world to me!
I don’t know why, but I’m kind of nervous to share this.
…We’re not planning on having child care for our baby in the foreseeable future. Which means, even after my makeshift maternity leave, I’ll be living that entrepreneurial, small business life AND will be a stay-at-home mother for our baby until at least September. The girls will still go to pre-school 4 days a week, including over the summer, but I’ll have baby home with me full time. Which I know is going to be very hard in addition to work, but it’s what our family needs right now. So in my eyes there’s no question about it.
Why? I’ll be frank and tell you that we simply can’t afford three child care costs.
So, until Grace goes to Kindergarten in the fall, baby boy and I will be hanging together full time. (Maybe longer? Who knows at this point.) This is such a big change from before! Both of my girls went to daycare at 3 months old because I had to go back to work, which was honestly so heartbreaking especially at first. This time around, I’ll get to really immerse myself with the early days. It’ll be a welcomed change! I know I’m so lucky for this, but I also know it will present unique challenges, because I do plan on keeping my foot on “Drive” with work, too.
With this new full-time-mother and full-time-business-owner adjustment, I will no doubt falter at times. But, I’ve got this. I’m not over here pretending like I’ll do it all seamlessly, or do it all necessarily well, but I do think that if I’m efficient with my time and smart with how I balance it all, we’ll be able to make it work.
Plus, I will have some help. My dad in particular is a GODSEND and has offered to help a lot, our gym has child care that I can leverage sometimes, and I’m hopeful that I can optimize efficiency during baby’s nap times. (PLEASE be a good sleeper- ha!) Scrappy Emily is going to come out. But you know what? I’m good under pressure, and I’m good at being scrappy, so I am very optimistic. 😉
One thing is certain — I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your encouragement, support, engagement, and readership!
Now more than ever, I appreciate it more than you can imagine. As my family and I enter into this very interesting season filled with so many adjustments, you all are such a shining light. Even though this season will no doubt be challenging, I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Thank you so so much — thank you for being here now, and thank you for sticking with me in the future.
As I always say (and truly believe) — we all are able and responsible for creating the charm in our every day. Here’s to a bright future with baby and much goodness to come!
