I stepped back into work with a baby in my arms — and it felt right |
With a baby in one arm and a spreadsheet open on the table, my first KIT day wasn’t the clash of worlds I’d feared — but a quiet reminder that motherhood and work can fit together after all, says Elle Duffy.
There is something oddly calming about swaying softly while talking through a business cashflow.
I’m aware that’s a strange thing to write, but my first KIT day - or ‘keeping in touch’ day - from maternity leave arrived this week, with a baby tucked into the crook of one arm and a spreadsheet open on my laptop. It was a textbook case of two worlds colliding, though not in any way I could have predicted a year ago.
As I talked through inventory and business plans, I was acutely aware that I was standing in a space that belonged fully to neither work nor home, but an unknown area in between. It was my first proper step back into work since giving birth almost three months ago, and it felt oddly familiar and completely surreal all at once.
Our baby had very little interest in our meeting. He cooed when our two bosses walked into our house, casting........