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I struggled late on in life
to obtain my qualifications as well as working 60/70 hours per week. I know how difficult it must be for a woman in the same predicament also having to deal with children. My working life took its toll on my marriage and we split up and divorced and she took all marriage assets that were paid for from my earnings and savings when we were married. I also undertook work on a run down detached house and through my work added £100,000 to its value. After we were divorced she stopped me seeing my three children and started to stalk and harrass me. When I remarried she started stalking and harrassing my new wife and her family. I eventually, at the age of 56, decided to move well away to start a new life and I had to start from scratch picking uo new clients. Being an accountant is a very stressful life with the long hours, deadlines, clients putting you under pressure, having to conform to our institute's regulations, HMRC and other authorities constantly changing tax, laws and goalposts. This is why a qualified accountant's fees are so large.
It's not an easy option
When my children were very young and I was establishing my own practice, I had lofty ideas that this would be the easiest option. Truth was it really wasn't. There was always a sense that I was compromising on everything; giving my clients the time and focus they needed and giving my children the time and focus they needed. Everyone was a loser.
For me the biggest strain was finding the time to focus on CPD and staying on top of all of the tax and legislation changes, which left me feeling I wasn't doing a good enough job for my clients. I wonder if the better approach for working mums in this situation is to focus on a niche tax specialism or specific service offering to provide to other practice accountants? The potential there is to take away all of the practice management guff and focus on the core work.
If you are a working mum reading this, I promise you it gets so much easier once they are settled at school. Honestly, if I hadn't realised that practice accounting wasn't for me (for completely different reasons/it's a long story) life would be pretty great right now!!
this shift as like a grieving process..
I found this article very interesting! I don't think there is enough support for young mums/dads trying to hold on to their career and forge a decent balance between motherhood/fatherhood and keeping the skills achieved (in my case) over a decade in the corporate world. The UK is particularly poor at this - our European friends are much more forgiving and allow longer time at home with their child before going back to work and offer a variety of alternative roles in a lot of cases (ie not full time for example). I had to take legal action with my employer which was hugely stressful.
Also many of the courses offered are mostly all day, expensive and in cities for the most part.
There could be more done for scaling costs to members in practise returning to work after having families. I think there is little consideration/ support to mums and dads who have been at home and wanting to commence work as an MIP. There could be more local 'short day' workshops, technical helplines or mentoring for new MIPs. Technology might be changing to accommodate a shift in work patterns but the mindset in the main accounting institutes is not nor those companies offering training to accountants.
I agree
I was lucky enough to be able to take 3 months Additional Paternity Leave in 2015, and now work part time (4 days a week), with the day off to look after my, now, toddler.
It is a little tricky as an employee, especially if there are sick days from nursery, or CPD courses scheduled for my 'non working day'.
I do feel like I still need to check my emails during my day off, and it's almost not perceived that well by clients (and partners!) that a man is working part time
It depends
Losing your confidence as Mum in accountancy roles. I think this is down to how much pressure you put on yourself and how much support you have. I have a fellow group of Accountants and bookkeepers Mums and Dads and fellow collegues with no children in Glasgow and Edinburgh and we are very supportive of each other and we all have had our moments. I do not think isolating yourself is a good thing.
At the end of the day you are not super woman or superman. Kids come first and you work around that. Work Saturdays or Sundays half day if you want and do it if it suits the way your family works and their activities. I have never missed a sports day a concert or anything. I put in 7 hours a day my office is nearby 20 min walk and have the same time off. but is suits me when I want my time off.
We now get asked on regular basis can I have a meeting on Saturday and it has turned out very successful. Leave early on Friday to do family things.
I love my work but I always accepted that for at least 10 years are so I would lose some earnings and adjusted our life style to suit that and holidays. I work around the weather in the summer so we as a family can get out and have a cycle.
I feel very confident but it is not about the money. I think caring to much what other mums or dads think worries many. Stay away from social media and main thing do not isolate your self from outside people.
Use it as time to visit everything and be a big kid again but get out of the house work in the evening if you want.
Perfect career for a mother!
I always tell people that I didn't really appreciate accountancy as a career until I had my son. I work from home and while he was little I had someone come to care for him for a few hours a day so that I could keep the business ticking over.
I think the juggling can be managed as long as you don't take on too much work and your clients know what to expect. I make it quite clear to my clients that I am not at my desk all day every day but that if they leave a message I will call them back. They benefit from a personal service and prompt attention.
Once my son got to school age I only ever worked while he was at school, so I was always there for him. The rate you can charge enables you to work less hours compared to what you would have to do as an employee to earn the same. As for keeping up to date - I belong to a group of sole traders that meet once a month to share knowledge. We also use a Google group to pose questions and ask for help if a problem arises between meetings.