You can choose to have it all

I have just read three articles debating whether the stay-at-home or working mother is the better person. It surprises me to see that this debate continues when women up and down the UK are increasingly choosing to have it all – to be a stay-at-home-working mum.

There is evidence to back this up. eBay reports more women starting home businesses than men and increasing numbers of women are requesting flexible working from their employer. Aside from the surveys and reports, it is useful to pull on real life experiences which is why I recount one now.

Last Friday afternoon I was re-acquainted with three school friends I had not seen for more than 10 years. At school we had different skills, hopes and ambitions. Yet round this table all four sat as homeworkers. Besides myself, there was a florist, a painter and an employee of the Royal Mail, who shares house with a home-working husband, employed by a US software company.

Between the three, they have six children. The conversation moved from talk of business development and marketing techniques through to helping the children achieve good grades. These women are earning their way and taking on family responsibilities, eased by the fact that they do this under one domestic roof.

The time saved on a daily commute can, instead, be spent enjoying lunch. Work left undone can be finished in the home office when the children are sleeping. And it means children get to see a true entrepreneurial role model in action every day of the week.

So, if you are a mother and working or considering doing so, don’t feel the choice is one or the other. There is no reason why you can’t have both.

Emma Jones is founder and director of Enterprise Nation

Source: www.enterprisenation.com