Hire a Maternity Coach: Madonna admits her struggle with working life and being a mother
Working women throughout the nation are increasingly feeling the pressure from juggling work and family life, Madonna recently admitted that she is not immune either and The Performance Solution suggest that instead of hiring a nanny, hire a maternity coach.
CareerBuilder.com’s survey of working mothers reveals that 52% are willing to take a pay cut to spend more time with their children, with nearly 1 in 10 willing to take a pay-cut of 10% or more.
The British singer told a British Newspaper, ‘ It is a struggle to balance my career with my children, I’m always going, ‘Oh my god, I want to get home and put my kids to bed’. Then sometimes if I’m spending a lot of time with my children, I think, ‘Oh God, I just want to be an artist.’ And you know, its hard.’
Claire Newell (the Times) wrote that women were being prevented from making the same progress towards equality at home as what they have achieved in the workplace and that economic reality meant that women are pushed to adopt a traditional role of doing most of the child rearing.
A maternity coach, as suggested by TPS, can help mothers explore the full and part-time working options and help them deal with any company politics, pressures of work and ‘missing baby’ when they return to work.
In 2005, 3 senior female clients of The Performance Solution planned to return to work after the birth of a first baby. Two of them changed their minds after 9 months maternity leave and 1 went back to work for 2 months, then gave up. All 3 mothers lacked support and any help to think through their needs and their abilities (or not) to juggle so they approached the Performance Solution and we helped get them back to work.
Plans from the government have suggested that they are looking to introduce extended maternity and paternity leave but think-tank Demos is asking for ‘family-life’ vouchers to be introduced, paid for by either employers or taxpayers, as the governments policy needs to move beyond the workplace and intervene directly into home life.
Coaching v’s paid labor - The family-life vouchers would also contribute towards paying nannies, cooks and cleaners so women will find it more practical to return to work. Maternity coaches are used instead to help new mothers change how they think and what they do, rather than being a drain upon tax-payers and not resolving the underlying issues before tackling the workplace. These changes can help you to feel better. Unlike some of the other talking treatments, it focuses on the "here and now" problems and difficulties. Instead of focussing on the causes of mother’s distress or symptoms in the past, it looks for ways to improve their state of mind now.
Jenny Watson, chairwoman of the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), said: ‘ We need to start thinking of new solutions to deal with families who are struggling to work and take care of children and elderly relatives.’
Although its not just about women as men are now wanting to adopt more flexible working practices so that they can spend more time with their families.
For further information about coaching and maternity coaches please do not hesitate to contact amanda@theperformancesolution.com