What is your profession and how many hours per week do you work?
I am professionally qualified as a development consultant and worked in this role until 2004 when I gave up my job as Head of Regeneration for UK North for EC Harris to concentrate on Swimbabes. Swimbabes was set up by me in October 2003 as a way of changing my work life once I had my first child and really needed more time at home to see him!
I now work as a company direct running 2 small businesses with 18 staff and two premises. Our main business is running baby and toddler swimming lessons from 12 venues across Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Since starting in 2003 the business has grown steadily and we now teach over 1300 little swimmers each week. All of our teachers are fully qualified baby swim instructors and I have over 7 years experience of teaching babies and children to swim.
Could you describe a typical day in your life?
A typical day.....hmmmmm. I am not a morning fan, so that is the hectic bit! After getting myself up and the kids up, I usually drop them off at school before I head to our Swimbabes office. The office is generally busy with emails and phones - we have 3 phone lines but they are constantly busy with existing swimmers queries and new enquiries for our lessons. I have an office manager, Rachel Taylor, who deals with the day to day stuff and several of our teachers also work in the office when they are not in the pool. Once I am happy that all is ok at the office I head across to our shop. We have a shop in Holmfirth that is also used as the main headquarters for our online sales, which can get pretty hectic, so I have a shop manager Karen who runs things day to day. However, we all need to chip in to get stuff done! I am generally in the office / shop until around 6pm when I head off home to have tea and play with my children - then once they are in bed it’s back to the computer to work on my website or accounts for a few hours before bed.
I don't get to the pools as much as I used to and now I mainly teach just 6 hours a week. I love my pool days as they are a real contrast from the shop and office and provide a fantastic, fun time teaching little swimmers who I have seen develop and grow - in some cases over a few years. We take babies from just 4 weeks old on our swimming sessions and many choose to stay with us until they go to school - some of our swimmers are able to swim a whole length at just two and a half years old and they all have a great time learning to swim. It is a great job!
What do you feel are the pros and cons of being a working mother?
A tricky one I think. I guess I have always had to work so never really been able to think about this one. The cons are definitely feeling guilty that you are not home enough for your children - although setting up my business has allowed me to be around a lot more than I would have been in my previous career so that is a bonus.
I like to get out and about with my children and be active and fun as a mum - but sometimes having to run Swimbabes too makes this stressful when you miss out on things. I guess being a working mother has the advantage that my children have always been to nursery and that has made them very sociable and quite independent from me - good for them I think! Running my own business does allow me to be a lot more flexible with when I work so I can really make the most of my time with Josh and Eve and we do try and have lots of fun holidays to make up for me not being round as much as some other mums.
As a development consultant I had to work quite long hours and travel to work away regularly. Once I had Josh I really did not want to be away from him and miss out on him growing up to the degree I was doing in this career so while I was still on maternity leave I started to look at other options.
I had taken Josh baby swimming from the age of 5 weeks and when the opportunity came up to train as a teacher I was delighted to have a go, and have never looked back!
What are your childcare arrangements?
Josh and Eve are both at school now. I take them four days a week and collect them two days a week. The other days my partner takes / collects them and when we work weekends we rely on family to help out.
What would be your top tip for working mums in order to cope with the demands of their day to day lives?
I guess the best thing is to get everything into perspective and keep positive - sometimes constantly juggling things and organizing things can get me down but then I stop and remind myself how lucky I am to have two amazing children that have really changed my life.
