Many of you know that I am a new mommy to a beautiful little girl. It is a new journey for me that I would describe as exciting and exhilarating as the learning curve is pretty high. Motherhood has taught me so much more and I’m sure some of the lessons I’ve learn could be used in my career.

Humbled

I’m humbled and grateful that I get to see her bright smile beaming at me every morning. Being a mom has taught me to be humble and appreciative of the tiny things. I have always see the big picture at work and now I can appreciate the little details as well.

Managers often forget the minute details that are like the screws and bolts in a huge machinery. The higher the management is, the further they are away from the ground. Without rolling your sleeves and getting down on your knees every week to get a taste of the smaller but equally important ground details, you can only trust and rely on your bottom feeders. Remain humble and friendly are the key to maintaining good working relationships with your ground staff.

Planning For The Worst

Having her around means we always need a contingency plan for plan b when plan a does work and plan b might not work too. I’ve heard of parents changing their babies’ diapers on a grass patch when they are to the public. I haven’t resort to that however, I did change her in the car boot on a hot sweltering day. You can imagine the fun as I struggled to change a cranky newborn from a poop explosion diaper.

As do in a workplace, especially when comes to executing projects, contingency plans are crucial. In fact, those plans might save the day, if not salvage the situation. I couldn’t remember how many times my arse was saved because I planned for Plan A, B, C…. yes, I’m that cautious and I’m glad during those times I don’t need to break out in cold sweat, no need for finger crossing either.

Organization Skills

Diapers? Check! Milk Bottle? Check! Hot water flask? Check! Check! Check! Wait a minute.. did I forgot to fill the hot water flask again? I can tell you it takes me an hour to be completely ready to go out with my little one and the moment I step out of the house, she’s hungry and screaming for milk again. So it really pays to be organised.

Notebook? Check! Pen? Check! Water bottle Check! Laptop? Check! And I’m good to go for 3 hours brainstorming session in the office. Unless… I forgot to bring along my laptop charger and have to run out in the middle of a great suggestion because I ran out of juice.

Let it Go

Crap! I forgot to slap on the nappy cream before diapering her and I forgot to bring an extra pair to change her poop-soiled shorts and I forgot to sanitise my hands before feeding her! Fuck, it’s one of those days! Ahhh… I said the forbidden F word in front of her for the fifth time today! I’ve learned that in order to keep my sanity, I need to let go.

Sure, parents make mistakes, who doesn’t? Nobody made us go through parenting university in order to have kids. Think about it: to drive, you need to pass a driving test; to operate machinery, you need to have a license for it; to cook in a restaurant, you’ll need to go to culinary school. But to be a parent, nobody said you need test /license /degree to be one.

As an employee, we are humans too. We make mistakes and we recover from them. If the company wants perfection, they can hire robots but if they want the best, I will give them my best, learn from my mistakes and learn to move on. Dwelling on your flaws instead of improving them will cause a demise in your career soon enough.

Patience

Ohhhh…. you got to have the patience of a saint if you want to be a parent. Go on, just ask any parents. Juggling between sleeping 3 hours in a day, loads of laundry, mountains of diaper packs among your groceries and a newborn wailing into your ear, you really need to grit your teeth and breathe. On top of that, cook, mop, clean, sweep are still expected of you. Yes, it can get on my nerves when my partner comes home at the end of the day and laments what a tough day he had.

Don’t we all have that irate colleague that ask the wrong questions at the wrong time or just rub you the wrong way the way he does his work? Patience, my dear, patience. I think my patience bar has been stretched beyond the ozone layer and probably is somewhere near Mars. I can now handle 10 of those irate colleagues much easier than I can handle a colicky baby on a sick day during a thunderstorm.

Rewarding

Both having a great career and being a mommy are rewarding. The difference is they reward you in different ways. You can boast a prestigious managerial role, drive a flashy car and hang out with yuppies. I can boast a well fed well-burped baby, an equally flashy diaper bag and chill out with equally tired parents with stained tees and yoga pants.

You may laugh at the fat paycheck at the end of the month and me? I think the best peals of laughter are from my girl when I play peekaboo with her.

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