I've genuinely seen a couple of articles recently and had a few different feelings about them, but they're talking about what to do when you're on Maternity Leave and honestly, I don't know whether people are being serious when they write stuff like this.
Whilst I know they're probably written with the best of intentions, particularly when they talk about attending antenatal classes before you have the baby and going to baby classes when the baby arrives because a common condition of maternity leave is mothers feeling incredibly lonely, and obviously that isn't great, but then these articles go on to talk about things like side hustles, and that's where I start tearing my hair out.
Now I know that there are a lot of conversations happening at the moment around statutory pay, the costs of raising a newborn and also paternity leave entitlement, so when people are talking about a side hustle it's understandable as to why they might want to earn extra money, or why they might need to earn some money, or want to start a business which means that a parent can stay at home with the baby and reduce the amount they need to pay out in nursery fees, but there can be pressure sometimes to do something productive, meaningful or income generating at a time when the priority should be healing and looking after the baby. Maternity leave and shared parental leave is the time to be getting used to the new normal of life with a little person in it, or an extra little person than you had before, so why do we need to have a plan for doing more?
At the moment, one of my biggest plans is to get used to the routine of using washable nappies, getting them and the wet bags we're going to be using for nursery washed up, dried and ready to go again. I'm planning on getting into the routine that nursery will be so it's not as much of as shock to either me or the little guy when he goes, and I'm planning on getting out for a walk every day, or as close to every day as I can, partly because of the whole thing of 'exercise is good for you' but also because having only just moved here, I don't know the area as well as I might want to and because I'm directionally challenged it's the best way of me understanding where things are.
I've seen other people manage to pick up new skills when they're on Maternity leave, but I've seen others start to do that and be posting it on social media, then give up, and that's completely valid. To me it goes back to COVID and lockdown: some people were learning to bake sourdough, and some people were just struggling to keep their heads together. All babies are different, and they go through so much rapid change in the first six to twelve months, so whilst you might have a super sleepy baby who feeds really well in the first few weeks or months, that can change so quickly. Maybe it's sentimental and comes from a position of being privileged enough to take a decent amount of time off with my son, but given how quickly they change and how quickly they grow, I can also understand parents that want to spend all of their leave spending time with their child and just soaking in every moment with their little one and anything more than that is a bonus.
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