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News flash: Life doesn’t stop when you have a baby

News flash: Life doesn’t stop when you have a baby

I was reading a feature in Glamour magazine yesterday. It was the issue with Tanya Burr on the cover and it was all about the super-vlogger taking over the world – I thought it might cast some light on how to be a super-vlogger but it basically just tells you that Tanya is lovely and works really hard.

Enlightening stuff, thanks, Glamour.

Anyway, the feature I was reading was all about having babies. There were lots of opinions from different women with some saying they want lots of kids, many saying they’re not ready for kids and some saying they’re 100% sure they don’t want kids at all.

The thing that really stood out for me was the amount of people who seem to have put their lives on hold when having kids – or think they’d need to if they have kids in the future. Others said they didn’t want kids because they want to travel and focus on their careers. Yey for wanderlust-fueled career ladies, there’s lots of us out there. But I don’t understand where the idea comes from that you can’t:

  1. Have a child AND a career
  2. Travel with a child

So I’d like to put the record straight for any ladies out there who – like me – want it all.

You can have a child AND a career AND travel. You might even be able to squeeze in a social life if you’re lucky.

We’re always told that you can’t have your cake and eat it too but, actually, you can. I do. In fact, you can even have two cakes because running around after kids burns a hell of a lot of calories and you’ll probably need the extra energy.

My son, George, is eight months old. He’s been abroad twice – once to the Maldives and once to Portugal – and we travel around the UK all the time. George goes to nursery two days a week so I get some time to myself and to work. I don’t have a single guilty bone in my body about sending him to nursery because he loves it there – sometimes a little bit too much and he doesn’t want to come home.

I’ve taken inspiration from The 4-Hour Work Week and I work smarter, not harder. It’s amazing how much more you can get done when you attempt to squeeze a full-time job into two days per week! I outsource some work, I hustle and I barter and my blogging business has grown and grown. The only month that I saw a dip in my income was the month I gave birth – and I’m not going to beat myself up about that one!

Yes, sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes I go to bed as soon as I’ve eaten my dinner because I just can’t keep my eyes open. Sometimes I look at Sam and realise we haven’t had a proper conversation in over a week. Sometimes I hate saying no to exciting travel opportunities because I don’t want to leave George for too long. But, most of the time, I feel lucky that I’ve been raised to have the attitude that I can have it all. It never crossed my mind that I couldn’t so I’d like to thank my parents for that one.

I wrote this post because I get a lot of emails from women who love to travel, love their careers and love the idea of one day having kids. That ‘one day’ might not be for another 10 years but rest assured that if you want it all, you can have it all and your life doesn’t have to stop when you have a baby.

Sayli Deshpande

Monday 21st of December 2015

Truly a great topic for the post. I am a proud mother who is a teacher by profession and a traveller by heart. My passion for travelling is still the same like before. Nice inspiring post for young mothers!

Aimi

Tuesday 8th of December 2015

This post has cheered me up immensely! I have always had the travel bug but with buying my house, working etc.. it always gets forgot about for 'one day' and now i have just found out i am pregnant..just as i was to embark on some long awaited travelling. Have done lots of breaks and general chilling out holidays but not the important places i have always wanted to see. I am flying out to the USA in around a month which i am looking forward to but was so worried that this would be my major first... and last trip for a long time, just as i was getting started :( so to hear that it is still possible to live your dreams and be a mum is good to know!!

TheTravelHack

Wednesday 9th of December 2015

Congratulation Aimi. You can definitely still live your dreams - it's actually even better to live your dreams with your little one because they make everything more fun!

Meghan Oaks

Wednesday 2nd of December 2015

I totally needed to hear this right now! My husband and I are expecting our first child at the end of January and since I am now well into my third trimester, our travel has slowed way down (it's now a struggle to sit in a plane/train/car for more than a couple of hours at a time). I worry that after the baby is born, our traveling days are over, but it's so nice to hear that they aren't!

I would be interested to hear some of your tips for traveling with a baby as we have a trip from Europe to the US scheduled for 6 weeks after my due date for a Christening. After that, the plane tickets more than double in price, so we wanted to take advantage of my maternity leave and cheap airfare.

TheTravelHack

Wednesday 2nd of December 2015

Congratulations Meghan - that's so exciting! I remember that third trimester feeling, not long to go now.

I actually have a post coming out next week about flying long-haul with a baby. 6 weeks old is a great time to be flying with a little one because they sleep so much - it's just a constant cycle of sleep - feed - nappy change so you'll be fine. George loved his baby carrier at 6 weeks so maybe get one in case baby won't settle and you need to pace up and down the plane. At 6 weeks, George wouldn't be able to stay away for more than 10 minutes if I was bouncing him around in a baby carrier.

Madi @ Restless Worker

Tuesday 1st of December 2015

This post really spoke to me. It seems to be the topic of conversation as you get older - when are you going to have kids? My answer has for the most part been - I'm not, or not until I'm ready, once I've traveled to XX number of countries. Truth is I'm scared that I won't be able to do it all and something will fall. Thank you for proving that it's possible!

Elizabeth

Monday 30th of November 2015

This is a great post! My son is 3 mo old, and I took some time off right after I had him, but now I'm back to working from home. I've even just expanded things a bit, which is great. My husband and I have also made it our priority to continue traveling, and though traveling with a baby is different, it is still great! Keep it up, Monica!