If you commented on the Name Game blog entry, keep watch on Caitlin’s “Mabel Files” (www.blog.mabel.ca) where she will soon be posting the winner of the Camp Pack. Caitlin takes care of all the official stuff and I get to have the blogging fun. Heck, I’m on maternity leave so it seems fair that I run the contest and someone else worries about monitoring entries, wouldn’t you say?
Although I’m on mat leave, I have not fallen off the face of the earth entirely – still blogging, checking facebook, on twitter, etc. To simply disappear from social networks and ignore good online discussion is not something this chatty mama is cut out for. Cocooning for an extended period of time off-line with my kiddos wouldn’t really work for me. And last I checked, my inbox didn’t get the memo that I’m on maternity leave.
In the last few days I’ve had both a radio and magazine interview. We like Mabel to get some airtime so an interview request is not the time to pull maternity leave rank – save that for when you want to guiltlessly forward annoying sales messages to your colleagues.
All things considered, my maternity leave rocks – I do what I like and ditch what I don’t. Not a bad gig really. But everyone has a different idea of what works for them.
I know one woman who was enjoying a long and successful legal and academic career when she gave birth for the first time at 43-years-old. When I was at Law School I would occasionally come across her articles which were nearly impossible to read – she spoke an entirely different language and it certainly didn’t involve words like “lactation” and “play date”. The transition from working world to mama world was too great a leap for her – she only lasted two weeks before heading back into the traditional workforce.
I know other mamas in similar situations who take great pleasure in retiring their blackberries for the full maternity leave then reluctantly blow the dust off them when it’s time to head back.
There is no right answer to what consitutes the perfect maternity leave. I’m officially heading back to Mabel life in September. After having six kids under foot all summer, the return to work will likely be a nice break from my maternity leave!
photo #1 – yes, checking my blackberry from my hospital bed
photo #2 – on the Enterprise Toronto panel last week. Finian at three weeks old was the youngest entrepreneur in attendance. Can you see the little guy on my lap?
RSS
No rest for the weary!
3 weeks is impressive! I may have Finian beat though. I got my first McMaster student card at 2 weeks old when I sat in a lecture hall listening to my mom speak at an infectious disease conference at the hospital. She wasn’t the ‘lactation’ and ‘playdate’ type either
Seriously though, I do like that whole ‘do what I like and ditch what I don’t.’ I had my hand in a million different pots before I had kids and now I find its a perfect excuse to do stuff ‘when I can’ but if I’m just not feelin’ it, then ‘ooops, sorry, have to look after the babe.’ It’s shameless, and it works!
P.S. on second thought…in those days they didn’t have blackberries or wi-fi at Jo Brant, so maybe she did get more of a break than you did after all!
Carrie – you’re not unlike my Posy. She went to her first university lecture at 7 days old. It was feminist legal theory and I thought it was most appropriate since she was born the week before on International Women’s Day!
I understand it all! I was designing and shipping out orders the day after my second was born. I would have done it in the hospital but they didn’t have wi-fi (I brought my laptop to try) and I didn’t have a Blackberry 2 years ago.
I could not think of having it any other way. Enjoy your summer with your family!