Introduction
Parenting could be complicated at the best of times. In these challenging times, being a new parent is downright scary. Combining a career with raising your bundle of joy is challenging and not for the faint of heart. We know how you feel, and we are here to give you some tips to help you transition to work after your maternity leave easily.
Keep in Touch with Work While On Maternity/Paternity Leave
While maternity or paternity leave is that time off work you need to adjust to being parents, it’s essential not to be out of the loop. Make it a point of duty to keep in touch with your colleagues or boss.
Keeping in touch with your employees is also a great idea if you own your business. The idea isn’t to keep working but to use work as a release when you get overwhelmed with taking care of your young one, especially in the early days, when late nights and early mornings are on your horizon.
Keeping in touch with friends from work and discussing the latest events or things concerning work keeps you in the loop so you don’t feel out of place when you return.
Plan Ahead for The Mornings
This tip might sound like a cliché, but it’s one of the most important and valuable for new parents. One thing you should expect as a new parent is the unpredictability that follows your day, especially in the mornings.
First, your mornings no longer resemble the times when all you had to do was morning chores and head to work or your business. Your baby has ripped the routine into shreds. However, since babies are primarily creatures of habit, you can make a routine out of unpredictability.
Here are some ways to make your mornings more manageable.
- Express your baby’s milk the previous night, and store it properly.
- Put everything you think your baby will need the following day in a place where you can easily find them.
- Pack lunch or breakfast the night before.
- Get a to-do list or scheduler that allows you to list the things you need to do. Strike out the tasks you have carried out to know what tasks are left.
Make Time for Your Little One
Have you heard the phrase they grow so fast? Well, it’s true. Despite how busy your schedule might be, ensure you create time to bond with them. You feel overwhelmed with juggling work and parenting, but striving to make time with your baby increases your bond.
You could participate in simple activities with your baby to increase your bond and help you spend time with them.
Skin to Skin Contact Is Important
Spending a few minutes or an hour putting your baby on your chest and letting them enjoy skin contact with you goes a long way in creating a bond between you. Skin to skin contact also calms your baby and provides them comfort.
Make Bath Time Special
Bath time is a great time to bond with your baby. Making bath time an adventure your baby looks forward to calms your baby for bed and allows you to notice your baby’s growth and unwind with your baby.
You could also bond by playing with bath toys and singing songs. All these increase your baby’s cognitive abilities.
Hold Massage Session with Your Baby
Another way to spend time with your baby despite your busy schedule is by giving your baby a mini-massage session. Usually, the massage should be immediately after their baths. It helps to calm them further and increase the bond.
The massage is nothing intense. You have to gently rub your baby’s chest, back, legs, and arms.
Shut Guilt Out
When you get back to work after your maternity leave, there’s a possibility for you to feel a little guilty about being separated from your baby. The feeling could come as you drop your baby off at the daycare or while you are at work. It could also happen when you miss one of your baby’s milestones.
Battling with guilt might be natural, but it doesn’t make it right. It reduces your productivity at work and causes you to overcompensate when you see your baby, which only yields negative results. Try as much as possible to shut down guilty feelings.
Understand that you will get to see another milestone when you miss a milestone, especially when your baby is still young.
When these feelings come, always reassure yourself that having a career while being a parent is nothing to feel guilty about,
Stay Grounded
When you resume your break, you shouldn’t fall into one trap: calling your baby’s caregiver constantly to check in on them. We understand how difficult it is, especially as you have been the one taking care of the baby. So while it might sound easier said than done, we believe you can do it. Distracting your baby’s caregiver while they should be monitoring your baby isn’t the best course of action.
Since you have trusted your baby with them, stay grounded, and let them do their job. If you find it difficult to concentrate at work or feel tempted to call, take a walk, have some conversations with colleagues, and remind yourself that you have to conserve your energy for when you pick your baby up from the nanny. That way, you can do your job too.
Staying grounded includes not burning yourself out either at work or home. You have to strike the right balance to have the energy and motivation for work and your baby.
Conclusion
Maximising your time with your baby should include getting toys that would stimulate their interest or albums to monitor their progress because they grow up fast. Because you are busy most of the time, you might have time to shop for everything differently. Why don’t you head to somewhere where you can get everything in one place?