Mothers’ Day Out: Childcare no longer synonymous with giving up on a career, mothers find
Motherhood is traditionally believed to be the most blissful of all experiences. But for working women, this event often comes with a rider – career versus childcare.
But thanks to start-ups, the ‘online’ bug and a change in role-play between parents, mothers are moving from nappies back to office cubicles, much faster today. This drift is not easy though.
Singapore-based Deepa Narainswamy, who took a break post maternity realized that mothers have to choose between career and child care “and insufficient good opportunities.”
That is when Deepa and two of her classmates (Shreya Prakash and Rashmi Rammohan) from IIM Bangalore started Flexibees.
From the ‘mother-applications’ this company receives, most want to work to “reclaim their professional identities,” says Shreya.
Gurugram’s Parul Ohri (44) headed Corporate Communications in a multinational, before she quit for motherhood.
She is presently Chief Editor at Momspresso. "It takes years to find the right balance. I learnt one thing that is to ask for help when needed. I also learnt to delegate work and authority and not to everything myself ,” she
says.
Hansveen Kaur quit as National Marketing Manage but during the baby-break felt she was falling back in the corporate race.
“With peers moving up the ranks, it added a lot of pressure on me.”
Hansveen came back to active working because she had a good support system Pune based Franky Agarwal, when on leave, also felt her peers were much ahead in terms of career advancement or designation..“But as a mother, felt good,” she said.
Neha Bagaria (37) Founder & CEO, JobsforHer, took 3.6 years off to have two children.
Then, once at a party once, a friend asked Neha: “So what do you do?”
Neha pointed out to her toddler but she was asked again: “So, what do you really do?” Neha felt disappointed since she was always an overachiever.
Rashmi says women are increasingly looking for jobs in Sales, Business Development, Digital Marketing and Technology.
But there are outliers like Margaret D'Souza, a lawyer and partner in a legal firm which she gave up for her baby. “My daughter used to be unwell so first I did flexi hours, and then gave it up totally. Six years later, Margaret
found a job but realized that much has changed.
“Professionals lose a lot when they give up their career for motherhood and there are many to take your place,” says Margaret adding that she is happy she can raise a family and work.
Mothers are also taking up study courses to keep pace like Bihar’s Rink Devi who worked on daily assignments, studied while on her baby-break now runs a beauty center in Jharkhand. Anuradha Kumari, (writer) made sure she kept her network strong when on leave, that helped her.
Mothers, today, can hope to nurse their dreams along with their babies.
As Divya Jain, CEO & Co-founder, Safeducate says “taking a break from work can be as liberating as it is daunting.”
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 "Margaret D ’Souza gave up her lawyer practice for her daughter")
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