Mentoring mothers...

I have a fellow manager in work who has asked if she can mentor myself and another pregnant lady whilst we are on maternity leave.
Nicki is writing a book all about being a working Mum and one of the chapters is around the benefits of being mentored through the process of leaving for mat leave, during and return. Aside from offering to read her material so far we were also both happy to be guinea pigs of a sort.

So we had our first meeting and discussed what we'd like to do at the next couple of catch ups. One of the things we both agreed would be useful was some support and guidence around what to consider / next steps on sorting out your finances.
There seems to be very little on the internet, such as a template for working out how long you can afford to have off work, knowing how much to forecast for child care etc.
We also said we would discuss childcare itself (options, when to start looking into etc).

We have agreed to meet monthly and that once off on mat leave we wouldn't meet for the first 3 months (whilst getting used to the whole change) but then potentially once or twice after that. Not to discuss the detail of work itself but potentially just to talk about any major changes / how we are feeling / keeping in touch etc.

The whole process is a good idea I think and one that many businesses could benefit from doing. It isn't an actual corporate process at work, rather just something that Nicki is interested in, but I think you must increase the chances of women returning to work / engagement generally through doing something similar?

I'll keep my blog updated as we go along...

Maverick is busy doing some major kicks. G Kisby even felt them on his back last night in bed as we snuggled down to sleep. Totally addicted to Mad Men (great series set in New York in 1960's - fab era - I would definitely be sporting a structured fitted dress right now if I didn't have a bump) but have been so so tired of an evening this week that even fell asleep during an episode last night at what must have been around 9pm. Must be the return from hols - either that or Mav's is going through a growth spurt.

We don't know that Mav is a boy by the way - just seem to have got into the habit of assuming so. We have agreed to stop that since we are all (including our unborn child) going to have issues if a girl pops out!!! Only 2 days till baby is viable - whooohoo!