Louisa's blog: 3 years on

This week is the third anniversary of our network’s launch and I thought I might share some of my own experiences from these three years with you.

A lot has changed. I’m writing this blog from my laptop at home – a far cry from the noise of an equities trading floor and the research desk I worked from when I created Citymothers in November 2012. The house is quiet as my two children Rose, 3yrs and Laurie, 2yrs, are both at nursery. I’m writing as quickly as I can, though, and with a constant eye on my phone, because today is Laurie’s first day back at nursery after a short illness, and I’m convinced nursery will call any minute saying he needs to come back home again. My husband and I argued this morning about whether he should go. Husband said, “He’s still not right - give him a quiet day at home”. “But I have to work!” I wailed. We asked Laurie if he wanted to go, and the answer came back “yes please”. Full marks for manners and saving Mummy’s bacon. If it weren’t for this, there wouldn’t be a blog today – a combination of his illness, half-term and visiting family have rather scuppered my organisational and planning skills in the last fortnight. 

Laurie’s arrival in August 2013 - in itself a major life event (I can’t pretend I was fully geared up for life with two children only 19 months apart) - prompted another. After 7 years working on the sell-side in investment banking I changed jobs, and now work part-time for my ‘day job’ in private equity. The move was necessitated by a number of factors; a ‘light-bulb’ moment at a Seminar run by Talking Talent in early 2013 which highlighted that the career progression I wanted was unobtainable; my children’s need for greater flexibility from me; and the rapid growth and transformation of Citymothers into WorkLife Central and the corresponding increase in my time involvement here.  

Life now is a cacophony of lists and schedules – but incredibly fulfilling. I complain a lot, but wouldn’t change a thing. My husband works full-time in finance and travels extensively. I have incredible degree of flexibility that enables me to fit both ‘day job’, WorkLife Central and Telegraph work around the children’s nursery hours. But still, school holidays turn me into a wreck as I try to give the children fun days out whilst keeping in touch with work (perhaps my most memorable work-life moment of the summer was enjoying being stuck at the top of the Ferris Wheel at Dreamland, Margate, due to a temporary breakdown and consequently benefiting from an unexpected email break, oblivious to the panic of those around). 

So I always admire family units that make it work in other ways. As Citymothers has been joined by Cityfathers, Cityfriends, and our Back to the City community for professionals on a career break seeking a return to the City, I’m proud that WorkLife Central has developed into a fully inclusive organisation. And we hope to do more, expanding our offering in 2016 to encompass topics such as same-sex parenting, adoption and surrogacy, step-parenting, eldercare, and parenting disabled and special needs children. I think our new logo and website domain name reflects our focus on supporting the needs and interests of all City professionals balancing work and family life, and am very pleased to be able to tie in this long-anticipated development with our 3-year anniversary. Here’s to our continued growth as WorkLife Central.