The stay at home mum
Jane Field has two children – Henry, 12 and Hattie, 16. She gave up work for fi ve years after the birth of her second child. She then set up her personalised gifts company from home, Jonny’s Sister,
www.jonnyssister.co.uk.
We used to live in London and I had a stressful job with lots of overseas travel involved. Before my children came along it was fi ne and I found the job challenging but enjoyable. After Hattie, we managed to juggle things with full-time nursery and child minders. However, after Henry we found that there was no other alternative but to have a live-in nanny. I found this a huge intrusion on our lives. When I was away on business she used to fax over a diary with what had happened with the kids during that day. One day when I was in Hong Kong, sitting on my hotel bed reading that day’s diary, I literally had a light bulb moment and realised how much I was missing out on. I decided there and then to quit my job. I had been with the company for nine years so it was not an easy decision, though when I decided it was like a weight being lifted from my shoulders. After handing in my notice, the company gave me two weeks off to reconsider; during that time I realised I had done the right thing. There was no stopping us then and we rented out our house in London and moved to my hometown in Dorset. Within a year we sold our London house and bought in Dorset. After giving up work, my husband discovered a new me, as I was less preoccupied with work and for once he could talk to me without that faraway look that says ‘I’m listening but I’m also thinking about that project that needs fi nishing’. The kids loved having me around; I got to be a part of their lives rather than just hearing about their day. I witnessed changes, from tying shoelaces properly to baking their fi rst cake. My husband was envious, but he was able to enjoy it too, as he could see we were all so much happier. The worst things about being a stay at home mum were chatting to friends who were still working full-time, worrying that I would never get back on to the corporate ladder, missing the highs from winning contracts and putting on heels to fi nd they are agony after wearing fl at shoes for so long! Despite all this, for the fi rst two
years of being at home, I didn’t miss work. When Henry turned fi ve I began to realise that work did not have to mean long days and travel, and I started to think I could do both. I decided to try something on my own, and seeing as personalisation was already popular and everyone loves cushions, I hit on the idea of Love Letters. We’re lucky to live in a house with about nine acres and have built a large log cabin in the grounds where I work. It’s perfect as I can work around the kids and home life very easily most of the time. It’s defi nitely
possible to have a career and children; it is all down to prioritising and being fl exible. Personally, I think mothers make wonderful employees as they have learnt to juggle things on little sleep. Before, I thought work was only about long days, stress and permanently feeling guilty about where you should be. Since working for myself, I have learnt that with planning and the ability to accept things will go wrong now and again, you can hold down a rewarding job, be a successful mother and fi nally let go of that guilt.
TODAY’S BUSINESS WOMAN 61
INTERVIEWS BY FIONA FORMAN
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