I had been working as a manager for investment management operations in a multinational company, when I took the plunge into motherhood. As much as I was considering having a bundle of joy four years into my marriage, I was equally apprehensive about the drastic lifestyle changes I foresaw following motherhood.
But that did not deter me from taking the big step. Soon, I was a glowing new mom cooing at my bundle of absolute joy. Having made up my mind about having just one child, my priority was to give her quality time, even if I had to put my career on the backburner for some years. With my husband in a demanding sales and marketing role that required him to travel frequently, I knew I had to take up a huge chunk of the parenting. I luckily found a live-in nanny when my baby was about six months old.
A year down the line, no matter much I enjoyed being a mom, the inertia of getting back to work was making me restless. I had eight years of work experience and was about two years of sabbatical when I decided to take the plunge again. This time, it was a job in a completely unrelated industry.
I took up the role of a content manager for a media company, that offered me a lot more time to spend with my child than my pre-sabbatical job profile ever could. With no prior experience in either editorial or website-related work, I braced myself for a steep learning curve, alongside managing the team’s deliverables. My innate flair for writing and editing went a long way in helping me settle down in my new job.
All was going hunky dory till my nanny decided to quit. I couldn't find an equally trustworthy one in short notice; so when my daughter was two-and-a-half years old, I started working from home on most days of the week.
Working from home sounded like a cakewalk, but with a child at home, it was not that simple. I was not prepared for the amount of multitasking working from home entailed. And yes, it stressed me out more often than not, but I eventually learnt to live with the stress.
The day I went to the office seemed like a long-awaited vacation! I had my mom or mother-in-law fill in for me on days I went to work, till my daughter started preschool. A few months after she started preschool, I used the school's daycare facility on days I went to office. Sounds easy again, but every time I needed to keep her in the daycare, I had to go through the process of mentally preparing her for staying in the daycare (which she abhorred).
Once my daughter started preschool, I had about 3.5 hours (yes, that's a lot of productive time for a mom with no babysitter!) to focus exclusively on my work and cooking, before she reached home at 1 pm. Once she came back, my house was a playground till she slept at night. In between feeding her lunch, bathing her, playing with her, and serving her evening milk/snacks, I managed to complete my office work. Sounds like magic, but it was a mammoth task to churn out new ideas for keeping her engaged during the time I was absorbed in work--especially because she had a very short attention span and was easily bored with toys or games that did not involve application of mind or creating something new.
Some of the cartoon channels did help keep her quiet, but since I didn't want to deal with the additional guilt of getting her addicted to the idiot box, I switched it off every now and then and gave her a box of crayons or play-doh instead to have fun with (never mind all the scrubbing I had to do later).
My daughter is five years old now, and while I still continue multitasking at the same pace, the past year has been a bit more easier on my nerves because she has realised I must not be disturbed while I am working on my laptop (unless it's urgent 'potty' time!). She has also made a handful of friends in our apartment building, who keep her engaged for a couple of hours in the afternoon.
Another year before she starts full-time school and I can ramp up my work. As I look back on the three-year journey, I realize that juggling office, home, and kid without a stable support system has helped tap a tremendous reserve of energy and motivation within me that I never knew existed.
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