Hello Rebecca, tell us a bit about yourself. What do you do, how old are your children and what happens with your kids when you are at work?
I am the Co-founder of Gift Wink, which is a gifting platform that exists to make thoughtful gifting easy.
Gift Wink uses technology to match gift buyers with the perfect gift and remind them to buy it in plenty of time. No more hours spent trawling the internet for present inspiration - our gift matching system will source the perfect one every time.
I generally work 4 days a week, 2 in our office and 2 from home. Whilst I’m working I am very lucky to have my wonderful mother, and equally wonderful parents in law to help out with childcare and school runs - not to mention willing sports match supporters!
1. One word to describe how being a WoMo makes you feel?
Lucky
2. What’s the funniest experience you have had juggling kids and work?
I’m a control freak and pride myself on knowing where all the kids should be at all times. Its was nearly the end of the kids Christmas holidays and I ended up collapsing with a pulmonary embolism. I was trying to finalise an enormous marketing campaign and was trying to do it from my phone on the ward once they had stabilised me. I send a message to my husband ensuring our son was ready to go back to school the next day with a list things to remember and to give him a kiss from me. I got a very funny photo send to me of the pair of them in a very empty school car park the next morning. I was two days early! oops!
3. What is the one piece of advice you could offer another WoMo?
Try and leave work outside the front door before you get in and focus solely on bedtime. You can pick up your laptop again when you’ve got them to sleep. It’s really hard sometimes, particularly if there are deadlines, but I’ve realised that by giving them my undivided attention they go to bed happy and quickly!
4. What’s the least amount of sleep you’ve gone to work on and how did you cope?
Oh goodness, I rarely get a full night’s sleep. I have one daughter that really needs what I call ‘nighttime parenting’. She needs more time with me than we get between school and work and juggling four of them at the weekend so she regularly squeezes in next to me in the middle of the night. I cope because I have a 45 minute train journey and I use it to catch up on a little sleep. I got woken by the conductor one morning as I was the only one left in the carriage and I was fast asleep! I actually mumbled ‘five more minutes’. The shame!
5. What have you learned about yourself as a WoMo?
That I have to ask for help. I’ve resisted it for years as I want to be able to do everything, but I can’t.
6. If you had a working mother’s anthem or mantra, what would it be?
'Hell Yeah'. Alex, my amazing friend and fellow founder bought me a framed print when I was teetering on the edge of jumping out of the corporate world into Gift Wink. I have it up on the wall opposite my seat at the kitchen table and it gets me going each day.
7. What is your guilty pleasure to combat WoMo guilt the best?
I take a day off just for me, every 6-8 weeks. No kids, no work. I need it to calm my brain down.
8. Would you rather be dealing with a tantrum or presenting in a board meeting?
Great question. Probably presenting, but only because it’s planned and I can get myself prepared. Tantrums often throw me and even though I’ve had years of practice I still am not very good at dealing with small red faced people!
9. If you asked your child / children what your job is, what would they say?
F age 8 - Selling toys
T age 6 - Gift Wink and to look after us
G and 5 - Earning money for us
10. What’s the one thing you wish you’d known before you became a WoMo?
That my house would never be tidy again. Drives me crazy, but every now and then I fly about the house threatening to throw anything away that’s left on the floor. The kids think I’m mad, but they pitch in and shove things frantically in cupboards.
11. To date, what has been your best WoMo achievement?
My four children say please and thank you without much prompting!
12. What do you want to teach your kids about working mothers?
I want my children to know that whilst I can’t be there every day in the playground, I’m out in the world getting stuff done and contributing on levels other than in the home. I have three girls and a boy and I want them all to feel equal and inspired.
WoMo has partnered with Giftwink to help busy WoMos find the perfect gift. Click here to see how they can help :)