(introduction to series here)
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My name is Penelope, I live in Auckland New Zealand and am the mummy to two gorgeous boys E (5) and G(3). I have a BA in French, Italian and Political Science; a first class honours degree in French; a graduate diploma in Communications and Public Relations; and a graduate certificate in ESOL . I went to High School in NZ but spent my final year studying in Switzerland. I also spent a summer on a scholarship in Florence, Italy. Before becoming a Mummy I worked as an Account Director in a Public Relations firm specialising in IT and T.
My husband and I meet in a Politics lecture at the University of Victoria in Wellington. The paper was called ‘The Politics of the Self and the Political Economy’. Needless to say I remember nothing about it other than the lecturer wore his pet cat to class around his shoulders. We were so proud at the time as we were our only friends who hadn’t met in a bar – how intellectual!
I had so many plans - I was going to be a lawyer, then a Diplomat and then a PR consultant which fitted well with my language degrees and love of talking J.
After seven years at university I took my career deadly seriously. I was at my desk by 7am and, as someone who naturally works very hard, found myself quickly promoted (three times in two and a half years) to be an Account Director. I was 28 and managing some of the largest PR clients and budgets in my country.
Unfortunately? I had always wanted to be a Mummy.
I have great-great-aunts who were among some of the original suffragettes in England. The right of women to vote, participate fully in society, to be allowed to be both mothers and workers was something achieved - not by some obscure history text book women - but partially by my women. New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the vote and growing up I definitely picked up that it is incredibly important, as a mother, to also work. Maybe not when your children are very young, but ideally as soon as possible after that and definitely by the time they start school. My absolute favourite sweatshirt was bright pink with the words ‘girls can do anything’ on it. It was a hand-me-down from our neighbours so a strong message quite literally circulating the area - although no one clarified it didn’t mean you had to do it all at once.
My Grandmother, also a teacher, worked when her two children were five. I think for both of them working and contributing financially was probably quite important (I remember my Mum telling me that, ahead of a seven-month campervan trip around Europe with my two year old brother, she worked in a restaurant at night to earn her own airfare). On the flip side is my best friend’s mum who is also an absolutely fantastic mother and chose to work full-time with nannies at home and paid after-school care at other women’s homes. I love their Mum and have strong memories of waves of perfume, power suits and feet which, confined for long hours in stilettos, could no longer fit flat shoes. But those were the options – New Zealand didn’t have childcare centers back then.
The working women I most admired of my generation often stated as a fact: ‘I have a brain and I actually like using it’. Here we have paid parental leave for 14 weeks and a year off for maternity leave. I think most people expected to see me within a few months. So rationally, pre-children, I decided I could probably squeeze in two children if I had them closely together. Then, by the time the youngest was say 18 months, the two of them could go off to daycare together. I had mental images of my two lovely offspring holding hands and walking through a childcare gate. Rationally, I concluded I could take maybe three years off? Rationally, I knew, even then, my career would be in tatters.
And then I had E. And even today I cannot write those words without catching my breath because that boy made me a mother. From the second he was born, six weeks early, within seven hours - everything changed. I no longer cared what anyone thought, who I might disappoint or even who I might make proud. I immediately felt an overwhelming, humbling, certainty that I had been put on this earth to be his mother and the fact that I could, hypothetically, ‘achieve so much more’ was the most false statement ever written and least important thing I could ever waste my time thinking about.
I got to be his Mummy.
My husband is a teacher, so our plan was to wait until E was born, sell our house over the summer, find him a job in Wellington and move into my grandparent’s house which my mother still owned. This meant we could have me at home for hopefully a few years. We put our house on the market the week before the Global Economic Crisis hit and there it sat. Selling our house was the only way could afford to have me at home as I earned about 60% of our income. It didn’t sell. We had offers but the banks weren’t lending and it kept falling through. I remember being shell-shocked and utterly terrified – my baby had just come home from NICU and I was facing the certainty that I was going back to work. I remember having a conversation with my mother where I sobbed devastated and uncontrollably, watching her heart break for me, as I told her we couldn’t make this happen.
The turning point for me was, however, not that moment, but the day a local warehouse had a huge fire. I stood watching the flames from my kitchen window. It was about 6pm and I was about to bath my baby when I realised that, because of the fire, our power was also off. I went into the bathroom to check for hot water and put my foot through the floor and realised our whole bathroom floor was rotted and this was just the first tile about to go. I may possibly at that point have said a very bad word very loudly but it was at that moment, profanity and all, I decided that I was going to make this happen or I would gladly die trying.
We cancelled all our bills that weren’t necessary, no cable for us, very basic internet plan that was so cheap and from such an obscure local company that more often than not we had no internet or landline, we wore layers of clothes rather than use heaters ,one car only used when necessary. I cooked exclusively from scratch (although my husband does remember the day I rang him at work to ask how to work our oven. We had already lived in our house for two years….). No new clothes, no coffees, no haircuts, if it wasn’t literally a basic need it didn’t make the cut. Even then we had no chance of breaking even and lived in savings for more than three years (thanks to money from my grandparents, a teacher and English professor, who spent their whole lives counting their pennies).
Still today when people ask how we can afford it I am quick to tell them “oh we absolutely can’t.” Now, as years lead to promotions and pay increases (my husband is now the head of English at a local highschool) we are in quite a different position financially. That said, staying at home has been absolutely financially crippling for us and we have quite literally watched every single dollar we have ever earned, or been fortunate to receive, pour down the drain. Thank goodness that drain is so cute J Only now are we plugging that drain and building things back up again.
Going to university, in my family, might as well have been part of compulsory education. My grandfather had a PhD from Oxford and my grandmother went to the University of London. My father went to five universities, my mother two, one in NZ and one in France. My brother is a lecturer at the University of Cambridge. I was always taught that education was for education’s sake, it was because of, and with the express purpose of furthering, a love of learning. It was never to get a job. Sure it made getting a well-paid one much easier but that wasn’t the reason for the degrees. So if I think what all those lovely letters after my name mean and how I can best use them, it really is within the walls of my home and in fostering that love of learning to my children.
However for me, it simply has to be me, it must be me with my children. Not for all those gorgeous toddler moments saying cute toddler things – I’m pretty confident any one could manage that well - it’s when they are sick or tired and quite frankly horrendous. It has to be me because I love them with a love so infinite that I can move mountains. Only I can kneel beside them, stare back into their eyes and have them to know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I love and understand them better than anyone and I will do whatever it takes to work with them and make it o.k.
I want my boys to have a long, calm, confident childhood and grow up absolutely enveloped in the love we have for them, to know there is no place I would ever rather be even if that place has to be the now repaired bathroom floor singing songs and cheering on toilet training.
Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. This made my day. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDeleteWonderfully written and I agree with these sentiments 100%!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful sharing of your heart Penelope!
ReplyDeleteThis has to be one of my favorite guest blog posts ever! Beautifully written.
ReplyDeleteAmazing story Penelope!! So enjoyed this :)
ReplyDeleteTruly inspiring...thanks so much for sharing your story, Penelope (and Sarah)! :-)
ReplyDeleteamen! i have an MBA and had a promising career....but left it all 10 years ago to stay at home with my baby....now 5 kids later i have never looked back and never regretted that decision....best 10 years of my life!!!
ReplyDeleteI loved this. Thank you for sharing this beautiful message and reaffirming my decision to stay home with my children. I know it is right for me and my family, but every now and then I'll admit somebody says something or I read something that lets doubt creep in. I will remember these words!! Thank you!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is such a beautiful piece!!! Brought tears to my eyes....thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteFist pump! I gave up a promising career to raise my three children. That was over 20 years ago, and while they were some of the most challenging years of my life, I wish I could do it all over again. Best years.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you so much for posting this. I am sitting here in my cubicle at work tearing up over this beautiful reflection. I have been trying to discern whether I will keep working after my baby is born next month, and even though I think we can swing it financially, I have felt torn over abandoning my "future" and "possibilities" and allowing "gaps on my resume" ... all the usual worries. This was EXACTLY what I needed to read right now. I am so grateful for this post and Penelope's wonderful witness.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I am right there with you!
ReplyDeleteWhat a moving and beautiful testimonial....I agree whole-heartedly! Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this beautiful post. When I was pregnant with my first (now have 3) I had my degrees and a great job and a beautiful resume. They begged me to come back to work after maternity leave. I went back and forth on it for some time as my husband was just finishing up school (baby came 4 days after graduation) and I didn't know how finances would all work out. I had a co-worker that had worked in the office for many years and whenever I'd ask her how her day was going she would always say "Same stuff, different day." One day at the end of my pregnancy that response hit me like a ton of bricks. Did I really want to leave my beautiful baby for some office where it would all boil down to "same stuff, different day"???? No way did I want to do that. I'd never ever trade it for anything!
ReplyDeleteBravo!! Wonderfully written!
ReplyDeleteI can't even put into words how much this moved me today. Literally sitting here with tears running down my cheeks.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(Also I too am from New Zealand!!)
Wow. Amazingly beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI have a cousin living in NZ! This was right from the heart. Being there for them when they are little but also when they are teens. Seems like they got ...neeeeedier! touching pictures.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful article. I agree whole heartedly with your thoughts. Thank you for sharing your story. I have a favorite quote that relates to what you have shared:
ReplyDelete"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. . .It is not something to do if you can squeeze the time in. It is what God gave you time for."
-Rachel Jankovic, in Neil L. Andersen, "Children," Ensign, Nov. 2011, 28 (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/children?lang=eng)
Thank you so much for writing this, I felt like I knew it word for word. My sister told me to read it because it reminded her so much of me! My Business Degree in getting dusty in the cupboard and sometimes I feel guilty for not achieving more like some of my Uni friends have but then I look at my daughter and I regret nothing, nothing at all. (I'm from Australia :-) )
ReplyDeleteOh my word thank you so much for all of your lovely comments! It makes me want to email you each individually to say thank you. It was massively out of my comfort zone to write this, and I came so close several times to trying to say a polite no to Sarah when she so kindly asked me to, so all of your kinds words are really appreciated.
ReplyDeletePenelope
Penelope-I just loved your writing. It really spoke to my mother of 5 heart. I am able to work part time on off hours so spend the majority of my time with my kids. Reading your words today will make me a better mom!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! so, so, lovely.
ReplyDeleteI made the same decision you have and am so grateful. I, and my children, are better off for it I know. However, I have to thank my husband for working hard, because without him I couldn't do this. My brother-in-law won't do that for his wife, so she has to work so they can eat. Makes me sad to see her children so sad.
ReplyDeleteDear Sarah, Erin, Penelope and all the mothers to come, I want to thank you so much for these interviews! I am from Romania and here the concept of SAHM is not popular at all. I'm in maternity leave since 2009 and still employed, but I plan to stay home with my kids longer and, probably, quit my job. So I have on my desktop a document where I collect such testimonies; I labeled it "pleding for SAHM" and I read it from time to time, just in case I would ever doubt about the best job I ever had - that of a mother.
ReplyDeleteMillion thanks for your effort of writing here! You really make a difference in my life!
Kisses from a mother of three from Europe!
❤
My Gran had told me once that I could do anything I ever put my mind to, but not at the same time if any of it was to turn out well. That sentiment never left me, therefore, I knew when my children came along that it would be my time to do that most important part of my life at home with them.
ReplyDeleteI also remember Jackie Kennedy being quoted as saying that if she missed raising her children nothing else would ever matter much.
I was forced to go back out to work when my two youngest were in kindergarten because their dad left us and I really do long to be back in the home able to concentrate fully on my children and our home. Maybe, someday, God willing. God bless your beautiful family Penelope!
Your Gran was very wise. I have come to understand that I can do anything I put my mind to, but not at the same time.
DeleteI hope that someday soon you will be able to fulfil your desire to be back at home with your children.
Fantastic piece:)
ReplyDeleteThe part the really resonated with me was being there for the 'worst' of them. When my girls are sick, tired or overwhelmed as their mum I know what they need to sooth them. No one else knows them the way I do, other people don't recognise that when my youngest gets whingy it's often a sign she is hungry or that when my eldest gets overwhelmed what she really needs is some quiet cuddle time to regain her inner balance.
It truly is my privilege to be there for those moments:)
And as an aside - as an Aussie reader of this blog it's nice to see a guest post from our end of the world;)
Your post really resonated with me, having been on a very similar journey. It took a while, and some hard decisions and big changes to our life, but now here I am in my home, with my family and I are enjoying a much better life that I have created without the corporate life and paypacket which goes with it.
ReplyDeleteThis in an amazing story and so moving!
ReplyDelete