Being a bit of a #maverickmum

This year notonthehighstreet.com are celebrating maverick mums as part of their mother's day campaign. They asked me to get involved and so I had a think about what it means to be a maverick. A quick Google search tells me that it's either 'an unorthodox or independent-minded person' or 'an unbranded calf or yearling'. I'm going to go with the former.

Being self employed and a mum isn't particularly unusual nowadays. I have many many friends who are both. Working from home around school runs and the baby's nap times has given a lot of women the opportunity to contribute financially to their family and continue their career. Guys too of course!

When my son was born, Bookishly was in it's early stages. I took it slowly, built things up gradually and tried my best to achieve that all important work-life-balance. Not easy and certainly not always successful! Now that we have a second child - Jeannie is 4 months old and I feel like I'm looking for that balance again but in a very different way. My business is way more established, thanks in the most part to notonthehighstreet.com.

I have staff to support me now, and day to day things generally run without too much input from me. But I WANT to work. I love it. I love working with my brilliant designer on new ideas. I love looking for new sales opportunities. I love being involved in the grown up world and I am proud of what I have achieved.

So I guess this is where I might have become a little bit of a maverick. A few weeks ago I was sat in the board room of one of my suppliers choosing card for notebooks whilst breastfeeding the baby. More recently I went to Theo Paphitis' #sbs event in Birmingham (where I met notonthehighstreet.com's very own Holly Tucker) and I took Jeannie with me. She was asleep in her sling for most of the day and didn't make a sound!

I'm just in the process of getting some new workspace for Bookishly that is suitable to take Jeannie to. As she gets older and sleeps less I will need to find a new balance, but that's OK, I'll figure it out. There will be times when having a baby present in a business setting isn't appropriate, but very often it's absolutely fine, just not the norm. Hopefully the maverick mums will help to change that and make things even better for working parents in the future.

Checkout #maverickmum on Instagram and twitter for more stories and for some of the lovely gifts on notonthehighstreet.com for mother's day.