There was a time when a woman who was in a relationship could concentrate completely on the task of running a home and raising children, full-time jobs in themselves. Society and sometimes pure economics today play into this mix and dictate that most pregnant mums have to work. While most of the attention, quite rightly so, is on the pending arrival, you also need to be aware of your rights.

1. You are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave at a maximum. This entitlement is paid to you, regardless of whether you work on a full or a part-time basis, or how long you’ve worked for a particular employer.

2. Your maternity leave is divided into two categories and the amount of money that you receive from your employer is calculated accordingly.

3. The standard maternity leave ordinarily lasts for 26 weeks. You will be entitled to receive all your contractual rights during this period of time and to retain any perks such as a company car and your paid holiday earning ability. Apart from the payment that you receive, you will be treated exactly as if you were still working.

4. After the first 26, the following 13 weeks are known as “additional maternity leave,” but your contractual rights only apply in certain areas. Your notice period remains the same, your availability of redundancy pay is unchanged and your typical disciplinary and grievance procedures still apply.

5. Statutory rights are effective throughout the entire period of maternity leave, including the potential for another 13 weeks of leave, which is unpaid. You may not be discriminated against and must not be passed over in favour of another employee in the event of redundancy.

6. If you have 26 weeks of continuous service at the end of the 15th week before baby is due, you will qualify for what is known as Statutory Maternity Pay, or SMP. Statutory maternity pay is determined based upon a period of calculation – eight weeks up to and including the 15th week before baby is due. Your before tax earnings doing this period must have been at least

When you find out that a new arrival is on the way, there is little to match that feeling of ecstasy or exuberance that your whole family will share with you. You will be beside yourself with joy as an expectant mother and you can be sure that this will be one of the finest moments of your family’s life.

Friends and acquaintances will also be over the moon and will all look forward to the big day with much anticipation.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the whole World would be happy for you and while this is largely the case, sometimes you may encounter an element of negativity.

Surely, your boss is happy for you, but he or she may not be on quite the same level as everyone else and be particularly concerned with the operation of the business. In fact, in this case the business may come squarely in first place and you may have to be particularly persuasive if you are considering flexible working hours for your busy times ahead.

You may come to find that your boss is really a dinosaur and can be very inflexible, unfortunately, so you will have to call on all your powers of creativity and persuasiveness.

Seek out a co-worker or friend who has been in the position that you are in now and sit down to have a heart-to-heart conversation with her, to see how the two-way communication with her boss was initiated and how the situation panned out. While you are at this research stage, talk to other friends in other industries or professions and see what solutions they were able to come up with.

This is the time to be very creative and forward thinking and consider telecommuting or working from home. As companies around the World realise that they need to save on their overheads, this concept is becoming more and more acceptable. If the kind of work you do supports this, all the better.

Above all else, you must first decide what would be the absolutely ideal situation for you. In other words, be careful what you wish for!

Look for an ideal scenario and come up with options for less-than-perfect deals. Look at your home commitments first before asking for something you might not be able to accommodate.

Be strategic, yet careful when you discuss ideas and options with colleagues. If you all collectively share a workload, see how you could come up with ideas to divide the work accordingly, giving you a more flexible schedule. You must be willing to pull your weight in other areas and above all else make sure that you are confident it would be a win/win/win situation for the colleagues, the employer and yourself.

Some of us have jobs that expect us to complete certain tasks as part of a “job and finish” approach, regardless of the time that it takes and as part of your new schedule idea, contemplate whether you will be able to achieve this goal during your personal time.

The more you can show your boss that you would be equally as productive, if not more productive by working a flexible schedule, the more the dinosaur is likely to stop chewing the vegetation and listen to you!

In most situations, online life coaching can be another excellent source of research for you. Luckily, coaching for women can generally help by suggesting various options for a variety of situations. This is far from being the private domain of executives or sports players and you should turn to professional coaching, as well!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

Once upon a time it was possible for women in a relationship to be concerned only with the full-time job requirements of running a home and raising children. Society and sometimes pure economics today play into this mix and dictate that most pregnant mums have to work. While most of the attention, quite rightly so, is on the pending arrival, you also need to be aware of your rights.

1. You are entitled to 52 weeks of maternity leave at a maximum. This entitlement is yours regardless of how long you’ve worked for your employer or if you are full or part-time.

2. This maternity leave will be subdivided into two categories and will affect the amount of money that you receive from your employer accordingly.

3. Ordinary maternity leave lasts for 26 weeks. You will be entitled to receive all your contractual rights during this period of time and to retain any perks such as a company car and your paid holiday earning ability. In other words, you are treated exactly as if you are still working, except for the payment you receive.

4. After the first 26, the following 13 weeks are known as “additional maternity leave,” but your contractual rights only apply in certain areas. Specifically, the notice remains the same, redundancy pay availability is not changed and the standard grievance and disciplinary issues remain in force.

5. Your statutory rights remain in place throughout the whole of your maternity leave, which could include an additional 13 weeks of unpaid leave. You may not be discriminated against and must not be passed over in favour of another employee in the event of redundancy.

6. You will qualify for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) if you have 26 weeks of continuous service at the end of the 15th week before the baby is expected. This allowance is calculated and determined by reference to a period of eight weeks, up to and including the 15th week before baby comes along. Your before tax earnings doing this period must have been at least

When the Work and Families Act was introduced in 2007, it was felt that it was particularly advantageous to mums to be. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. Families celebrated that they would be able to allocate more time and attention to the vital task of preparing, accepting and then raising the child during this critical period. Maternity leave is seen as a basic human right in our caring society, although it can put pressures on both employer and employee as part of an ongoing working relationship. While employers must accept that pregnancy is possible and must accept the letters of the law, they must also be prepared to take on temporary staff as necessary to account for the woman on maternity leave. This is bound to cause a certain amount of disruption, but in the majority of situations, this is taken in stride.

For the mum on maternity leave a new clause entitles her to “keep in touch” by taking advantage of 10 legislatively allocated days, allowing her to attend work and receive payment accordingly. Parliament decided that this legislation was appropriate and that it would help to smooth over any element of “disconnection” or normal disruption that might take place in the work place and between the employer and employee over time.

Mum can take advantage of keeping in touch days from several different perspectives. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. It is certainly possible to do a lot of research while remaining at home and to get all kinds of e-mails and other notifications when on leave, but there is nothing to replace that feeling of actually being at your work place, talking and interacting with other staff members and seeing how new policies and procedures are actually working. This is a strategic way of keeping in touch and when time approaches to return to work, the employee should be “up to speed” and ready to be highly productive, once more.

When baby came around, Mum may have been particularly busy with a challenging project. Those keeping in touch days would be particularly advantageous for her in this case, allowing her to continue to follow through and to impart her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. By using those keeping in touch days, she would just be “behind” in terms of her time spent moving forward.

Mum will be able to interact with her temporary replacement during the time that she is keeping in touch, able to see any issues or problems as they are arising and predicting situations that may have arisen without formal supervision, otherwise.

Each “keeping in touch” day is also paid by the employer and does not affect the amount of maternity leave pay that she may have. Don’t forget that this can be a nice little boost, financially.

As an extended period away from your work can be challenging indeed, you may well have to seek out professional coaching to give you a good idea how to approach it. Generally, online life coaching helps us to cope with significant issues that arise in our daily lives and coaching for women can really help in this case, to balance personal and business issues.

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

Have you ever wondered how you keep going, working on pure adrenaline to survive, yet still function well at work and cope with all the other requirements of being a busy mum?

You realise that you would do well if you could work to a schedule and manage things much more effectively, but your new arrival is not aware of your need to schedule things, at all! These are crucial formative times for the newborn, who is entirely dependent on mum and all these requirements can sometimes make you feel as if you are working a 9-to-5 shift overnight, as well.

As a devoted mother, you are certainly enjoying your life in your new role, but from time to time you may feel as if you are at the end of your wits, calling on every element of your being to conquer what would otherwise seem to be perfectly mundane tasks. How are you going to get through the new work week which is rapidly approaching?

While we have already determined that it is difficult to maintain a schedule and if someone mentions the phrase “time management” to you once more, you are going to scream, but it is nevertheless important for you to establish as close to a routine as you possibly can.

Without routines we find ourselves bouncing from pillar to post and it all leads up to an elevated level of stress, which negatively impacts every other area. Although you might not like to think that you have to do so, it’s important for you to get into a routine as soon as possible.

When mornings roll around, try to keep it as simple as you possibly can. It can be very difficult to get going in the morning if your night’s rest has been disrupted by the needs of the baby. Nevertheless, there is much to do and if you do these items in the same order each day, it will be easier.

Your top priority must be your exercise regime. Don’t be tempted to take an extra 15 minutes in bed. Position your treadmill so that you can view the headlines, traffic problems and the weather on the TV ahead of you, even as the coffee is brewing in the kitchen. When you are done, it’s time to get the children up and make sure they have their own chores to do to lighten your load.

You will need to get this down to a fine art, or even a science, every day. This can be the most stressful time of the day as you are trying to wake yourself up and focus on what you have to do. If your routine is clockwork and all the other members of the family understand this and also do their bit, you’ll be better prepared to get out of the door running.

From time to time, you might think that you have nothing available when it comes to keeping up with your “me time” and enjoying your social life, having to concentrate so hard on work and the baby. Take time to foster a good relationship with a caregiver and understand how important this person can be to you.

You will hopefully have an understanding boss at work. Never take advantage of the situation though and only call in any favours or use any delay allowances or personal days if absolutely necessary. If you always play fair, whenever emergencies come along, you will be more able to deal with this situation and to meet with your boss’s favour.

Try not to schedule anything that is too demanding, technically for you at work in the morning and at all times, do not overload your schedule unrealistically.

During your 9-to-5 routine at work, time management is very important, as you don’t want your work requirements to spill over into your personal time.

Use professional coaching to help you focus on key areas. Many in your position have used dedicated coaching for women and have often been able to get past “the wall” by turning to online life coaching solutions.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

It’s time to celebrate when you hit one of those 10 year anniversaries!

When you get one of those milestones, pause and look back at what you have gone through, how successful you have been and what you have enjoyed. Some people can be a little daunted by this milestone as they fear that they may not have been as successful as they should and still further, wonder where they will be in 10 years time.

It’s important to take time to look at where we are in our life, and to take stock of our financial, emotional and personal goals. It’s also quite common for a woman, busy raising a family, to think about her sexual appeal and its effectiveness when she gets to the big 40.

It’s very true to say that we all become more philosophical as we age. This is a consequence of being able to reflect on many of life’s rich experiences and in many cases knowing how to put these experiences into practice. During our development as a human being, each milestone that we get to represents a significant achievement and a time for us to reflect and reinterpret our memories. As our interpretations change as we age, when you get to 40 you will definitely look at things in a different light as compared to ten years previously.

Things get better as we age, and as a 40-year-old mum, we are emotionally and mentally more secure and this by itself adds to our sexuality. We don’t feel insecure and have a certain amount of natural dignity which comes with our position.

We are much more composed, and know how to deal with any situation when it arises by displaying a sassy attitude, allowing us to feel inherently good about ourselves and to resolve problems with a lot more ease.

Thankfully, professional coaching solutions exist for mums at every stage of their life journey and can often help us to come to terms with our milestones. The word “sexy” means different things to different people and will certainly have its own interpretation in your eyes.

Physically you will have a different appearance of course, but with your maturity you need to learn to trust yourself to make the most of your looks every day. For example, do as the old screen sirens did – learn how you look better in certain lights and always present your best side to a camera! Emotionally and mentally, however it is likely that you are much sexier and more appealing for every year that you age.

You have achieved a lot so far and should be proud of it and fully secure. Your children are a great reflection of you and you should be proud or both them and your partner. Remember that life is only really enjoyable when you truly love yourself, first and foremost. Seek out online life coaching experts if you feel a little overwhelmed when you are approaching or get to those special milestones that everyone makes such a big deal about!

Remember that life begins at 40 and when coaching for women in this position I often remind them that the biggest favour they can do themselves is to think and act “young.” If you did not know, how old would you say you were, right now? And no, it isn’t “90”! Fabulous 40 mum, go and get them!

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working moms across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

Parents can find it very hard to understand all the changes that they have gone through. The arrival of kids can make a huge difference and really change the way that they looked at the relationship and at the very structure of the partnership.

What may have been a perfectly happy marriage can become, rather quickly, a rocky road. Delicate adjustments are needed by both people here as they try and right the boat and this can apply whether you have had kids before, or not. Maintaining a happy and successful relationship when kids come into the equation really does require us to constantly work at our relationship with our other half.

Whenever doubts arise, worries come to the surface or even anger bubbles up, it is important to take a step back and look at the overall picture. You’ve heard the phrase, “can’t see the wood for the trees”? So much is going on that it is easy for parents to become overwhelmed and not know how to cope. Sometimes this leads to the need for additional jobs and causes parents to become complex role players. This can often be a tricky transition and can lead to each person spending more time focusing on their new “position” than on their opposite partner. To take new parents as an example again, “mum” may become somewhat obsessed with the idea of caring for her newborn and the marriage itself may not have as much of a priority.

When mum is so absorbed with the new arrival, dad can feel as if he is completely surplus. In this situation, you might start to believe the mum is the one to look after the kids and step back. Subconsciously or otherwise, this may result in him backing away from the relationship as a whole, even though he thinks it is the right thing.

The most important thing for parents to do is to watch for warning signs and really understand their partner. Some of the symptoms include a quick temper, a feeling that one cannot cope and becoming irritable. The worst thing one can do is to leave any potential problems unchecked as they can quickly become unmanageable and dangerous.

It is always best to sit down when the kids are asleep or in school and have a heart-to-heart conversation with each other. Ask yourself whether you are being reasonable and ask the other for their honest input. Remind each other that things have changed now that you have additional family members and this is to be understood, priorities now look different.

You both have to work together as a cohesive team to raise your children in the way you want, and you shouldn’t underestimate how much effort and active input this takes from both of you. When all is said and done, give each other a hug and remember that you are the leaders of the pack!

It’s not all doom and gloom You do need to prioritise time together, but just make sure that your time represents quality time. Ask yourself when you last spent a weekend away together or did something fun with each other. That romantic dinner should be scheduled as often as everything allows and try your best to come up with small, but meaningful and romantic gifts or surprises for each other.

Mums can face a considerable challenge, especially if they are working as well and it’s useful to consult experts to help them manage the juggling act and the myriad of emotions they will face along the journey of motherhood. Thankfully, online life coaching is a marvellous way to pick up some truly professional coaching, and when it comes to coaching for women, it’s the perfect place to turn when life becomes manic!

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working moms across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.

Top class businessmen often tell us about their successful habits and we can learn a lot from what they tell us. As a mumpreneur, working from home, juggling a family and a difficult business, forming these habits can be quite a proposition.

If you have ever tried juggling the task of being an entrepreneur and a mum, you can see why many turn to online life coaching providers to help them with this difficult task. When I coach women, I look at the individual and the circumstances surrounding her, her family and her career. I also focus her in on seven fundamental “habits” that will help her to juggle it all without feeling overwhelmed.

Habit No. 1 – Prioritise!

It is a truism that time is our most precious commodity and we just don’t have enough of it. Have you ever noticed that time flies when you’re having fun, but the opposite is also true?

If we are busier than ever and time is flickering past, we have to be able to understand the management of time, or we will be quickly overpowered.

Most professional coaching experts will tell you that time management is rule number one.

Look at all the tasks ahead of you, get a piece of paper and write it all down. You will need to allocate a priority to each task and condense this into a manageable timetable. When you embark on this task, it can seem daunting, if not impossible. However, with a little ingenuity and application, you can make it work. Print your resulting prioritisation plan out, put it somewhere you can see it and refer to it frequently.

Habit No. 2 – Don’t forget about you!

Mumpreneurs should not forget about themselves, as this is the second habit of those who are highly effective. By focusing some time on yourself, you will ensure that you will not become overwhelmed, burnt out with a corresponding effect on your productivity.

Don’t think about priority time for yourself as being a selfish decision, but view it as a large investment in your vitality and business life.

Habit No. 3 – Make friends with a little routine in your life.

Setting up a routine is one of the best habits you can practise. By placing a routine and sticking to it, you will become more effective, even though it may take a minimum of 14 tries before you get into the habit.

Some of us do not like to be structured in this way, but experience has shown that injecting some routine markedly helps with daily management.

Habit No. 4 – Block out time without distractions.

Even though phone calls from good friends can occasionally be quite a relief from daily pressures, make a point of not letting distractions get in the way of your efficiency. It’s essential to section off time where you can switch off your smart-phone and apply the voice-mail option.

I’m not advocating that you ignore people, but just try blocking out some “do not disturb” time to focus on larger projects. Once you’ve taken this time for yourself, you can then set aside additional time to return calls once you’ve finished the endeavours that are crucial to the expansion of your enterprise.

Habit No. 5 – Create sacred space to work.

The fifth habit is about setting up your own personal and private area. A surprising number of mumpreneurs operate their businesses from their homes. If you happen to be a work from home entrepreneur, you’ll know from first-hand experience that it’s not a good idea to try balancing a laptop on the living room table and placing your file cabinet in the lounge!

In whatever spot it is in your house, make your workspace special and if possible set it up in its own room, away from the children when you’re trying to work. Set this room up with ergonomics and efficiency in mind, and don’t use the room for any other purpose than work. If feasible, try to have another computer set up in another spot for personal applications.

Habit No. 6 – A healthy body and mind, equals a healthy business.

If you don’t take care of yourself, all the rest of your habits will be tough to maintain. Exercise and fitness must become a habit and you should plan on getting at least three exercise sessions in per week.

Do whatever is easiest for you to take on as a new exercise habit. So if you don’t reside close to a gym, it’s just not reasonable to plan to go to a gym three times a week, as you’ll quickly realise that you simply don’t have the extra time to travel back and forth. Keep it simple – walking, running, cycling or dancing in front of an exercise DVD are all examples of keeping your body moving that are easy to adopt into your life as a mum.

Habit No. 7 – Create an outstanding superstar success team!

You’ve heard the expression “no man is an island” and the same applies to women! None of us can run a business alone and we all need support in various guises – mothers even more than most as we’re juggling so many commitments. Ask yourself what sort of support you need to become a highly successful mumpreneur and start to look for ways of building your “superstar success team.”

Professional coaching for women can help you to achieve your business goals much more quickly than you would on your own and is an important part of any highly effective mumpreneur’s success team.

But however you choose to build your team, don’t try to do everything on your own as there is so much to be gained from seeking the wisdom of good friends, confidants, associates and professional coaching experts. They can be superb sounding posts and lynchpins to your business success!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

When you think about it, it’s absolutely amazing how a single mum can balance her time between so many different obligations. After all, even with two parents in the household, it can seem incredibly difficult to raise a child, so how on earth do single mums get by? Answer: They just do! In any given day as a single mum, there’s just so much that needs to be done, and you have to keep on looking for new and inventive ways to accomplish everything.

Your list of obligations may seem like it goes on forever, but there’s certainly nothing in the rulebook that says single working mums can’t have time for themselves. In all likelihood, you may have two full-time jobs, a day job dedicated to your career and the other to ’round the clock’ Family Ltd., but even in these incredibly difficult circumstances, “me time” is crucial, not just for your own sake, but for your children’s as well. After all, happy mum equals happy kids!

If you want to find “me time” as a single mum, first of all you must look at your time management. This certainly isn’t to say that you have to “punch-in” and “punch-out” of every single task and project, but it’s essential that you’re able to prioritise without second guessing yourself. If this isn’t one of your natural abilities, try this exercise: Start a diary of everything you do for around 3 to 5 days in 15 minute increments. It’s not easy by any means, but it’s incredibly worthwhile! Once you’ve done this you’ll get a clear picture of where the time “goes” and where you are making the most of your time and where you might be “losing” time. If you have an interest in refining your time management skills and balancing out your daily life, it’s fairly easy to find helpful online life coaching professionals who can help you put everything into perspective.

Professional coaching will help you to understand the many facets of time management, and why it’s become one of the most valuable assets in business. Whilst blue-chip companies have always employed advisers and consultants, coaching for women has become increasingly commonplace, especially for single working mums who seek to balance family, career and personal life.

To enable you to find “me time,” it will help if you become more efficient at some of the tasks that you perform, day in, day out. Take a look at each area. Sometimes it will not be possible to streamline and become more efficient, but you need to tackle this with a “can do” attitude. Challenge yourself to experiment with new ways of doing things. If you have to work within a tightly constrained budget, this may not allow you to be as efficient as you otherwise could, but nevertheless, analyse everything. For example, are you being as efficient as you could be when it comes to cleaning? Do you absolutely need to repeat a certain process daily or would you be better served by allocating more time for a really thorough cleanup on one day and much less time on some of the others? If you’re a manic cleaner, try going on a cleaning diet for a few days and see if the World really does fall apart without the bathroom being cleaned daily!

While no one is advocating that you cut corners or that you don’t eat a healthy diet, see if you can make alterations to cut down on the amount of time that you spend preparing or cooking. Introduce fresh vegetables or fruits more often, scoring in terms of diet and less preparation. Take the “cook once eat twice” challenge, looking for recipes that you can double up on and either eat on two days running or freeze. How much time could you save if you cooked only 4 times per week instead of 7 and what could you do with that “cook free” time that you’ve saved?

Remember that certain things are not optional. You must get an adequate amount of sleep and you can’t “buy into” this time, and building exercise into your week is like paying into a health savings account – you’ll see “compound” benefits very quickly in your resilience, your health and your self-confidence . Simply by concentrating on exercise routine you can often get more energy, promoting greater efficiency during your working day.

Amanda Alexander is the Managing Director of Coaching Mums. She is a celebrated ICF accredited coach, who for over six years, has been helping thousands of working mums from around the World bring balance back into their lives, lose their guilt, find the time to explore their passions, and generally, to have a lot more fun! For fantastic articles and hot professional coaching tips, sign up to receive “Inspire”, our famous free newsletter today!