This is a collaborative post
When you take maternity leave to have a baby, it can be a great opportunity to get things ready for the baby, and then have a break from your normal routine as you get into the swing of motherhood. But if you take the full leave that you could, fifty-two weeks, then that is a lot of time that you can be using to do a variety of things. Life with a newborn isn’t easy and is a big adjustment, but there will be some times when you have downtime or time to yourself. So there are things that you can be doing to make the most of your maternity leave, so that if and when you are ready to return to working, you can make sure that you don’t feel in the deep end. Here are some suggestions to try:
Start a Blog
Blogging can be something that can be incredibly therapeutic and something that can be just for you, away from all things baby and motherhood. You might just like the therapy of writing and writing things down, but you might also enjoy the connections that you can make through blogging too; it is a large community. You could just use it as an online journal or something to document your baby’s first year. If you have a particular angle that you want to take, then it could be something that you can earn money from too; there are lots of opportunities with a blog.
Study and Education
If you are rethinking what to do with your life career-wise, as you’ve had some time to stop and think about it, then it could be the time to think about some education or training that you could be making the most of now that you have a different routine for a little while. You might just want to do something like an accredited MBA program online perhaps, as it could mean that you’ll be ready to go back to work and apply for that promotion that you had been looking at. It could be some other courses or training, especially if you were looking to work for yourself, such as a complementary therapy course or something else that will work around family life. Having a baby can be full on, but there is time to read and study if that is what you want to do.
Work Through Your Bucket List
There will be very few times in your life when you don’t have the pressure of work on your shoulders each and every day. So using that time wisely, is important. Are you someone who has a bucket list of things that you want to do or places that you want to see? If so, then using your maternity leave to tick some of the things off your list can be a really good idea. It could be travel-related things that you wanted to do, or perhaps things in the UK that you want to see and visit. You might have something like ‘run a marathon’ on your list, so you could use the time to train (which can totally be done with baby in tow).
disclosure: This is a collaborative post