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The realities of being a working mum in a pandemic

Photo credit: Unsplash
Photo credit: Unsplash

From Red Online

‘Stay home’ was the message that Boris Johnson and the government reiterated just a few months ago, but for working mums, who were suddenly cut off from multiple childcare options, it was possibly the worst news they could hear.

Last year the number of working mothers rose to a record high, as government figures showed that three quarters of mothers were opting to go back to work after giving birth.

Ksenia Tkacheva, 29, who started SuperFood Bakery, a healthy baking business, with her friend Tania Vynokurova, 28, in 2017, and has a two-year old-daughter, is one of those women. When the pandemic hit she was suddenly left without childcare – just as their business skyrocketed.

Photo credit: Emma Croman
Photo credit: Emma Croman

With everyone jumping on the lockdown baking bandwagon, sales of their pre-made gluten and dairy free mixes, including brownies and pancakes, started to grow.

Ksenia admits: ‘From mid-March, we began noticing our sales go up, both online and in shops. Our online sales have grown tenfold over the past two months and we've seen our retail sales go up by 200 per cent – and in some instances, by 600 per cent.’

But as Ksenia’s mother could no longer look after her two-year-old daughter occasionally – and with nurseries closed – she had to deal with a growing business, as well as full time child care.

‘I immediately knew it would be more difficult. Since having Sophia I learned to work quickly and efficiently during the days – squeezing in work hours on other days and over the weekends. However, since the lockdown started, that help that I had has gone. At the same time we also had to make some changes to our team – meaning that my co-founder and I would need to take on more work.’

With business booming both Ksenia and Tania know how lucky they are: ‘It’s difficult to see fellow business owners struggle. It made us truly understand how much we rely on our customers and usual trading. I saw my local coffee shops, florists, pet stores and many others closing their doors and every day I wonder if these businesses will be able to recover from this.’

Ksenia role in the business sees her looking after the production and sourcing of ingredients, while she also looks after the creative side: ‘I'm also the in-house creative designer, web-developer and recipe creator – so it’s a big job.’

It’s a busy time for a mother who has to keep her daughter entertained 24/7: ‘As we saw a huge increase in sales it put a lot of pressure on me to make sure we produced enough to support the demand. But while the amount of work was increasing, my time to do it was rapidly shrinking.’

So, the baking entrepreneur had to change her routine, which has meant early mornings and late nights, to get the work done: ‘I wake up at 5am to do some work before she wakes up. During the day, I check emails on my phone while I am reading to my daughter and then ask my colleagues to reply, dictating the responses on Whatsapp voicemails.’

Photo credit: Emma Croman
Photo credit: Emma Croman

Keeping her daughter occupied while she takes video calls has been a challenge, too: ‘I’ll join Zoom and conference calls on mute because I know that Sophia would be running around in the background – but I’ll make sure I insert my bits whenever I can.’

Her daughter's nap times have also become an opportunity to squeeze in a few more hours of uninterrupted work. Thankfully, as it’s her own business, her colleagues are fully supportive, but Ksenia knows that it could be a different story if she worked elsewhere.

‘I think it's a very good time for businesses to evaluate their policies and make a move towards more flexible, tailored work arrangements that would improve employees' welfare and their productivity as a result,’ she says.

However, with the lockdown rules easing and the government telling some people to go back to work, including her husband, Ksenia is also seeing just how hard it must be for a single parent: ‘In the evenings my husband would help me to feed Sophia, bathe her and play with her when he could. Now that he’s back at work while I am still at home, I realise that it was much easier when both of us were at home as we could at least work in shifts.’

Despite all the juggling, Ksenia admits that she still feels guilty. ‘I live in a sort of perpetual state of guilt about not being able to work at the same time as my colleagues and not being able to give my undivided attention to my daughter as I stress about a supplier issue or a deadline,’ she says. ‘It's definitely been a learning curve!’

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