My Parental Leave Experience – A Change of Parental Pace

We are really pleased to introduce you to Sadhbh Devlin, a very brave mum who has taken the decision to take a 5-month parental leave to enjoy time with her twin daughters and she is going to share her journey with us.

I am a working mother of two. I went back to work when my twin girls were 7 months old and we made the decision that my husband would be a Stay-at-Home Dad. It has been wonderful to have been able to have a parent at home and even more wonderful that my girls have such an amazing bond with their father as a result.

I am lucky that I quite enjoy my job, get on well with my co-workers and have a great boss. So, it’s all fine in theory, except that often… it’s not.

Basic needs will be met but there will be very little luxury… actually probably no luxury whatsoever. The budget has been set and it is tight, literally half of what we are used to.

For me, it’s not fine that I regularly have to leave my girls in tears in the morning, little wet faces pressed against the window, and hurry to the bus stop with my heart breaking. It’s not fine that I only get the hardest parts of the day with them – the morning rush and the evening chaos and none of the sweet, calm moments of the daytime hours. It’s not fine that I have cram every precious family moment into the weekend days – the days that are also allocated for catching up with household chores.

I am tired of switching from role to role. From Young(ish) Professional to Mama. From adult speed to toddler pace. I am tired trying to both keep up with everything and give my children the attention they deserve from me. So, recently, after a particularly fraught day, I decided to leave my job for 18 weeks and just be a Stay at Home Mum. I decided to step off the spinning wheel that is the daily grind and just see what it’s like to be on the other side. To slow down to toddler pace and stay there for a while.

 

For me, it’s not fine that I regularly have to leave my girls in tears in the morning, little wet faces pressed against the window, and hurry to the bus stop with my heart breaking

 

The logistics of this will be challenging, to say the least! I will be taking unpaid Parental Leave and our family of four will be surviving for almost 5 months on some relatively meagre savings. Basic needs will be met but there will be very little luxury… actually probably no luxury whatsoever. The budget has been set and it is tight, literally half of what we are used to. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about how we will manage, but hopefully all will be well.

At the moment all I am really thinking about is having free time to do whatever I want to do with my girls… but in reality I know that ‘doing what I want to do’ will be seriously curtailed by our financial situation. I would love to jet off on a family sun-holiday for example, but that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon!

 

While we may not have great weather in Ireland we certainly have a great wealth of culture and heritage, and a beautiful landscape to boot.

 

Being financially challenged doesn’t mean we can’t have any fun though, right? I don’t plan to stay at home everyday, bemoaning our lack of funds. I intend to have lots of fun, for as little money as possible. While we may not have great weather in Ireland we certainly have a great wealth of culture and heritage, and a beautiful landscape to boot. Surely there are enough places to go and things to see to keep us entertained for 5 months?!

Over the past few weeks I have been trawling the Internet and keeping an ear out for any mention of family activities in my locality. I made a simple checklist of all of these ideas that I intend to print out and stick on my wall so that when I’m stuck for inspiration for things to do with the girls I can just pick something off the list and get going. Actually, I have several lists made (I really like lists) – One for free outdoor & indoor places to visit. Another for ‘rainy day at home’ ideas and yet another with an assortment of crafts/garden games and some personal projects I’d like to do for the girls.

I will be sharing some of my experiences of having fun for free here on meetmums.ie and also on my own blog, Where Wishes Come From . I hope you’ll follow along! I’d also love to hear from you. Have you taken Parental Leave? Or are you on a tight budget and would like to share your experiences of frugal fun? I’d be delighted to learn from the experts!

Sadhbh Devlin  has always been told she has a head for hats. This may be true, but in fact she only owns two actual hats, both woolen and shapeless. She does however, wear many metaphorical hats. She is mama to twin toddler girls, wife to a very tall husband, a full time employee in an Irish language organisation, a greeting card designer and small business owner,  a photo snapper, a writer of words in tiny, secret notebooks, a crafter and an obsessive tryer of new things. She writes about most of these lovely hats at Where the Wishes Come From

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