Mummy Zen

This is a guest post by Kat Vitou, mother to a one-year old and a very inspiring business-woman. Since becoming a Mum, she left her career in magazine publishing to pursue her own ventures. She has set up a successful events business, writes regular magazine features and has another business set to launch next month!

Outlooks on motherhood and career differ for us all and depend on our own personal priorities. Whilst some of us are flying up the career ladder and keen to get back to it after a baby, others find their priorities have changed and decide to be a stay-at-home mum. There are a whole host of successful businesses set up by entrepreneurial mums who have used motherhood as a kickstart to launching a business that matters to them or who have taken an opportunity to pursue something they enjoy with the benefit of flexible working hours.

If you have made the decision not to go back to work, but you want to work for yourself now – here are 8 tips from a mummy who runs businesses without a nanny!

1. See this as the best opportunity – you are at home already so you have no complications
2. Have a really good think about what you are interested in to make sure you will continue with it
3. Do some research. Speak to other mums about your ideal casually and see what they think – mums are intelligent creatures so the feedback generally will be priceless
4. Develop a business plan. It doesn’t have to be difficult but get your ideas written down, look at your spending, check out your market, think about your goal – do you want this to be your bread and butter?
5. Save some cash – not lots, but enough for you to not get in debt, this could be just £20 a month if that’s all you can afford
6. Manage your time – with a little one this can be a struggle but if you really want it, it’s possible. Instead of watching pointless TV when they have gone to bed, write a plan, build a website, get excited and do something with your brain
7. Find a mentor – someone who has done it and can help guide you – it also helps motivate you
8. Finally, take the plunge and stick through the hard times. If you want it you will achieve it!

How many of you work from home or have a business idea brewing?

My son and I are going to a 1st birthday party today. There are quite a number of first birthdays around this time, due to the friends I’ve made with similarly aged babies to my son. Then there’s Christmas not so far away……  Choosing gifts for children can be difficult or maybe it’s just my own inexperience. With such a bewildering array of toys for children, it can be hard to pick out something.

I recently read an article called ‘Economically Shopping for Christmas Toys’ and have provided the link at the end of this post for you to read. A couple of points stood out for me:

- Kids can only soak in so much fun before it gets overwhelming and you are wasting your money. It seems many parents want their children to have lots of gifts to open so the fun never ends but maybe the parents/grandparents are the ones having more fun watching the gifts being opened, rather than the child appreciating all the new toys.

- Resist the urge to wrap a bunch of cheap toys just for the impact. Buying a few quality toys that will last for years is much more economical. Quality, not quantity is definitely a good adage to follow and it’s nice to have toys that siblings or other friends and family can continue to enjoy.

When I think of some of the best presents given for our son, the hand-made gifts certainly stand out. Some of our family and friends gave us hand-made blankets, a rug, hand-knitted jumpers and a mix CD for the baby and us to enjoy. Every time we use these things we think of the people who gave them to us. There’s a great deal of value in the kindness and thought behind these gifts.

Are there particular gifts that you and your children have really appreciated and enjoyed? I’d also be interested to hear how do you do gift-giving in your family.

Read the article, ‘Economically Shopping for Christmas Toys’ here.

Children can be expensive little treasures. You don’t need me to tell you about the wealth of temptations out there which encourage you to spend. Then there’s the small day-to-day things that all add up, like the lattes for your walks around the park…..

I therefore present to you some Mummy Zen tips for saving money and still having fun:

• Babysitting swap: for evenings out, but also take it in turns to leave your child with a couple of mums during the day. They can look after their own children plus yours while you go out shopping or to get a haircut etc.
• Coffee mornings and playdates at home: rotate with your friends to share the hosting.
• Creative play: make some toys at home. Cleaned, empty plastic bottles or containers can be filled with beans/rice/pasta to make rattling toys; fill a bottle with water and add some glitter; older children can use things like empty cereal boxes, egg boxes and kitchen towel rolls to make all kinds of spaceships, robots etc.….
• Lend, borrow, swap: if you have mum friends with children a few months behind or ahead of you, you can lend and borrow clothes, toys and baby equipment or organise a toy/clothes swap party.
• Local library: many host free baby/toddler activities like singing and storytime sessions and you can check out all the parenting/weaning/fiction books you want and rent dvds at low cost. Register your baby with their own library card and they get no late fees! Ideal for borrowing story books so you’re not re-reading the same old books at home.
• Shop on-line: free or discounted prices, both new and second-hand, here are some websites I like to use which sell all kinds of baby and child items:

www.ilovefreegle.org – get stuff for free & help keep landfills empty

www.beansprog.com

www.ebay.co.uk

www.netmums.com – check out the ‘Nearly New’ board

Do you have any money-saving tips to share?