Returning & Balancing your Return to Work

Returning & Balancing your Return to Work

Returning and balancing your Return to Work are the goals for working parents. Accessing a fulfilling career whilst managing childcare or other responsibilities is one of the biggest hurdles mums can face, especially mums returning to the workplace. We are firm believers in ‘having it all’ BUT, we also realise that when the washing pile is halfway up the wall when you’re ordering pizza for the 3rd night on the run or projects are piling up in the workplace, you may not feel like ‘you’re managing it all’ and you can fast be heading for burnout as a working parent.

Returning & Balancing your Return to Work

For this month’s blog I’ve decided to share just a few practical tips on finding space, balance and most importantly acceptance and the right mindset when returning to work.

Read our popular Return to Work After Maternity Leave – UK Returner Plan & Checklist (2026)

Set out objectives for balancing your return

Returning and balancing your return, hopefully are article around how to prepare for your return to work has got you off to the right start, but once you return how do you balance your return. My first piece of advice is around setting objectives, which I find incredibly useful and valuable each week. I like to set out my goals from a personal and professional point of view, really focusing on what I need and want to achieve that week. It can be on a personal front, ensuring I do at least four pick-ups and the swim classes or a school project together (Let’s be honest, I am not sure doing the swim class run is on anyone’s list!!!) setting time aside for me, from gym time to a hair appointment or meeting with friends while child-free.

This is often the first thing that we as women sacrifice, but it is crucial for us to retain an identity and a connection to who we were and are pre-children. From a professional point of view, it might be meeting with clients, attending events or project deadlines. Using a simple task app on my phone allows me to jot down the critical stuff for work for me, the kids, and our family.

It’s Not Just Your Load To Carry

This can often be a controversial one. But often, the expectations of sacrifice can fall on the mother on most occasions regardless of her professional role or position. You often read these articles, let the dishes pile up and leave the washing; it can wait while you have time with your baby. And that is true if you are a single mum. But if you have a partner, why aren’t they doing the dishes and washing while you spend time with your baby?

You are a partnership raising your children together with equal responsibility. In some situations, I appreciate that one partner may out-earn the other, so it is naturally assumed the other will sacrifice. But this needs to be a joint decision that both parties agree with. You need support to make things work; the burden is not just yours if you are a mum looking to getting back to work after staying at home or you are a few years into your return or the kids are about to go to university, domestic chores and looking after everyone’s needs are not just on your shoulders.

The expectation is still there that we will carry the load, and when you are a mum, the mental load you have for everyone is too much for one person to do alone. Make sure you and your partner are on the same page. This is not just on you.

Work Smarter

A quick look online from Instagram to LinkedIn will find you faced with plenty of posts imploring you to get up at 4 am and hustle – sure, if that’s your thing, fair enough. It’s not mine no matter how much I feel I will do it when scrolling through Instagram and blogs then hitting snooze. So my advice is to prioritise the things you need to get done and not get caught up in unproductive things – do you really need to go to every meeting you’re invited to? Can you say no more you may find its the best things for your career and life. Are you taking on extra work you don’t need to? Do you need to do every football pitch or ballet class run? Could this be shared? Can the kids do their lunch boxes – can you use that time more effectively to achieve both professional and personal tasks that you’ve prioritised?

Accept Things Won’t be Perfect

Sometimes, things will not be perfect and returning and learning to accept that is an excellent step towards achieving balance. If you are busy juggling a million things, letting some things go and sharing this mental load is essential. Setting objectives becomes important because if something isn’t a priority, it’s a firm reminder not to put additional pressure on yourself to achieve it. There will be days when you leave the office, but everything isn’t done, there will be days when you don’t make it to the office because your kid has the continuous nursery bugs which feel like forever, and there will be days when Netflix and a glass of wine when the babies asleep is all you crave. But there will be many more days when you start to find your stride at home and work.

Take Time to Reflect

Weeks can go past in a blur, and when you are constantly busy, it can be tough to feel you are achieving things, but you are, don’t let imposter syndrome take hold! And so, for my final piece of advice, is to really look at what success means to you at home and at work and work towards that and non ones else’s goals.

Most importantly, the dishes and washing can wait or be done by someone else; if all you want to do when you walk in that door is hold your baby, do it. 

Read our next article around return to work tips and how to request flexible working by the experts.