It's been a while...

Hi!

It's been a long old while since I have written on my Mummy Bean blog.

If you used to read the blog you'll know that we were having quite the adventure, moving home from living in Sydney, having our first baby and planning our wedding, all whilst I was still striving to be a marketing freelancer extraordinaire :)

Well... Belle is now two, we are married (minus the Vera Wang but I wouldn't of had it any other way) and my writing has led me to an amazing opportunity...

I'm currently working as a freelance marketing manager for The African Children's Choir, and their new campaign 12 Million Orphans and counting!

You may have seen the choir singing with the gorgeous Gary Barlow at the Jubilee celebrations. The choir are just amazing, and they raise money for relief projects in Africa that help the most vulnerable and in-need children there.

Here is a bit about the choir...

We are launching a new campaign called 12 Million Orphans and counting to highlight the ever growing number of suffering children in Africa, the children whom the choir sing for.

I have one daughter who I would move the moon and stars for, the children our projects help in Africa may have lost one, or even both, of their parents to AIDS. Who is making their dreams come true?

We believe in helping Africa's vulnerable children today, so they can help Africa tomorrow.

I'd be so grateful if you could follow the progress of this campaign on...

Our Blog

Our Twitter Page

Our Facebook Page

We have some exciting times ahead for the campaign, the choir will be over in the UK in September, we will have a refreshed website and new branding all coming soon, so please be sure to follow. We will also have some life changing opportunities for host families, volunteers and supporters, so stay tuned!

I will be tweeting about all things working mummyhood from my personal twitter account @Shell_12million

Thanks for reading, it would be great to hear from you all, let me know what you're up to!

Mummy Bean x

Tuesday left a bad taste in my mouth, literally...

I spent Tuesday at the Agenda for Later Life Conference in London. Why? Well, one of my clients sells disposable medical instruments so I was there to help them out with their PR, oh the glamour of being a freelancer. I was picked up at 5am, yes that's right, 5am, and returned at 7pm. As I normally work from home this was a shock to the system, made greater by Belle waking up at 1.30am with sore teeth. Stupid evil teeth, hurting my baby, it was as though they knew I wasn't going to get enough sleep that night, grrrr!

Anyway, it was a busy day and I missed Belle like crazy, I'm sure she didn't feel the same, she was having a wonderful time with Nanny K.  I returned home just in time for bed, so I got a cuddle in, and off she went.  Being the prepared sort of person that I am (ha) I had made a shepherds pie the day before so I wouldn't have to cook.  I wasn't too hungry, due to the massive amount of conference biscuits consumed that day, so James heated it up, polished it off and put the dish next to the sink.

I went into the kitchen later in the evening and spotted the dish.  The edges were glistening with that crunchy cheese crust that gets stuck to the sides, plus a few little bits of meat, yum, I grabbed the wooden spoon inside the dish, scooped round the edge and promptly shoved the load into my mouth.  Hang on a second, that tastes like.... ahhhh WASHING UP LIQUID!!!  Yuck Yuck Yuck... as I was retching James came in pointing and laughing like a five year old.  After declaring my hatred for him I rushed upstairs to clean my teeth several times.  Seriously, if you put washing up liquid in a dish, you then fill it with water, surely!  Who just shoves washing up liquid in a dish and leaves it! Who?  A man, that's who! ;)

As they say, you should always learn from your mistakes, and my learnings are three fold. 1. Don't ever work a 14 hour day after 4 hours of broken sleep. 2. Stop being such a fatty boom boom, scraping off leftovers is not a good look and 3. Always assume that men, even the wonderful ones, generally only do half a job!

The wonders of being a freelance working mummy

5 months pregnant in Sydney

I spent this morning being interviewed on film about becoming an entrepreneur and a working mummy, apparently I'm a great case study for both :)

You see I set my marketing freelance service up when Belle was 10 weeks old.  After that short time I knew I didn't want to go back to work full time but knew I needed to work. We fell pregnant whilst living in Australia so I had to leave my job there as a Marketing and Sponsorship Executive and wasn't entitled to maternity pay from the Government when we got home as we had been out of the country too long (don't get me started, I'll tell you about that another time)  So... www.themarketingbean.co.uk was born and I have been taking on freelance work from home ever since.

But how do you juggle work and baby...?  Be organised!  Be upfront! and ask for help when you need it!

Whilst being interviewed today I realised what a great position I am in.  I'm upfront with my clients, they know I have Belle full time and that she comes first.  Therefore I get the best of both worlds, the ability to organise my week around Sure Start classes and play dates whilst still actively using my business skills and contributing to the household, UK economy and wedding dress fund (Vera Wang in my dreams!)

I am lucky and if I have meetings to go to, or days I need to be at events both Belle's nannies can help out, or James will schedule time off when he can. But, for the majority, I work around Belle so I can enjoy her and we can spend time together.

Setting up your own business may sound scary and doing so with a 10 week old baby may sound pure crazy but I am so glad that I did and would encourage any new mum to do the same.  Being your own boss is a great way to ensure you spend as much time as you want with your little one.  It works for me, and maybe it can work for you too!

I don't think working mums get enough good press.  People shouldn't make us feel guilty that we are not with our children 24/7.  Children acquire great social skills whilst attending nurseries and day cares and flourish by having a happy and contented working mummy.  So here's to us!

I would love to hear your working mum stories.  Do you work full time?  Do you feel guilty about being a working mum?

Watch this space for a sneak peak of the film I was featured in today.