I'm pregnant
Scary words to say out loud.
No really, I am pregnant. The baby is due in August. It’s our third boy. We are very happy. So why am I so terrified about telling my clients? The main goal of my business, Part Time Professionals, is to create more accessible work for stay-at-home mums. We take pieces of work (like writing an online course,) break them into smaller skill-based chunks, and send them out to a network of qualified women to complete. Everyone does the part they’re awesome at. Then I pull it all back together, quality check it and deliver it to the happy client. Our business model is based on balancing work and home. So I should be fine with telling people I am pregnant. It’s the reason I set up the business. I should be fine with this. I am so not.
The plan was to drop the news with the same level of importance as a long overseas holiday. I was going to casually mention that I was going to be unavailable in August. The idea was to normalise the maternity leave and give it context. I am planning to take a few months off. I go back to work quite quickly, but my work is geared around being a mum so the intensity of that work matches where my kids are at.
I was really nervous to tell client number one. It got worse when she started the meeting with a desperate conspiratorial “I need to talk to you, in private.” It turns out that - are you ready? This gets complicated. The client’s aunt had told her that her daughter (the client’s cousin) had told her that her son’s friend’s mum was pregnant when they caught up for lunch. The problem: my client’s cousin’s son’s friend is my son, and I am the pregnant one.
She was mortified. Not because I was pregnant, but because she knew I was pregnant before I’d decided to tell her. We laughed, and I reassured her I was planning on telling her today. I then launched into my spiel about how we would manage work. She looked at me, confused. She shook her head to reset, and replied “I hadn’t even thought about that – it’ll be fine. You’ve worked with us after having a baby before. That worked out.”
It was a complete non-event for her in terms of work, but really exciting for her on a personal level. She’s even loaned me maternity clothes. It’s really cool. I realised the relationship I’d built with her meant my pregnancy was a big deal - for all the right reasons.