Story of a working mum
A working mum, Laide has just been relieved of her job for resuming late and not being consistent at work for the last 5 months. She had been a dedicated staff of that organization for the past 8 yrs. She has been married for 9 years and just had her set of twins 6yrs after marriage.
Balancing work and home wasn’t such a problem until her mum, who was a great support system with the twins passed. She was left with her 12yr old maid who also went to school. She hadn’t been lucky with house helps so she decided to settle with Tosin her 12yr old maid. Tosin’s mum fell sick and she requested that her daughter return to take care of her. Now Laide was left with her 3yr old, her home, and her work to manage.
The schedule
She would wake up as early as 4:30am to get her children and husband’s breakfast and lunch ready. Get the children ready, drop them off at school by 6:10am and head straight to work, from Ikeja to Victoria Island to resume work at 8:30am. She sneaks out of office at 5pm to meet up with the daycare center at 6:30 to pick her children. This has been her routine for the last 6 months.
The result
Stress was beginning to take its toll on her and she started waking up late the twins were also stressed and they fell ill too. She started going in and out of hospital, calling in sick and missing out on important meetings and missing deadlines. The HR had out of concern given her concession to resume 9:30 but she still wasn’t meeting up with work deadlines and management had no other option than to let her go because they were beginning to lose out on deals due to her absence from work and inability to meet up with deadlines. Its was a tough decision but they had to let her go.
These are challenges mothers, especially new mums face living and working daily in Lagos and other parts of the world where you have to drive long distance to work, not forgetting traffic. These lead to stress and some mothers develop migraine trying to keep their jobs and managing the home front.
Children who are supposed to wake up at 6 or 6:30am to prepare for school are up earlier than usual and they also develop what is known as child stress.
These issues can be solved if her child’s school is close to her work place. Another challenge is knowing how to locate a school and daycare center around the office.
Dworkspace will help bring to you schools and daycare centers around your office so you can drop and pick up your child without stress and life could be a little less stress while they grow.
Read more on this series Mothers and Work
Leave your comment below and send us a mail if you need help with nannies or in finding good day care centers via info@dworkspace.com or susan@dworkspace.com
Susan M is a Nigerian entrepreneur with a wealth of knowledge in branding and has recently developed an interest in blogging. She is very passionate about what she does and currently writes for Swift Wave Radio. You can find her stories at https://dworkplace.com
