Article by Natasha Lucy, owner and nurse prescriber at Natasha Lucy Clinics
You are amazing. Home schooling, running a business or working alongside taking care of your children in a time of great uncertainty… it’s been a challenge let’s be honest. I think we all ought to be proud of ourselves, take a moment and reflect on what we’ve achieved.
I started my career in paediatrics, and after such rewarding career, I later diversified and went on to found Natasha Lucy Clinics, a luxury skincare and aesthetics clinic in Essex. As a business owner and a busy (single) mum to four children – the youngest of which is just three years old, I am often asked how I achieve a work/life balance. The simple answer is that I don’t. Not yet anyway. I’m still striving for it.
I also think the idea of a work/life balance is entirely individual. What you may consider balanced may be less or more so to me and vice versa.
I do think however, that as a working mum there’s so much pressure to be present, to do the “right thing”, yet surely “the right thing” is also subjective?
When I am faced with the inevitable “mum guilt” that all of us working mothers experience at some point, I ask myself “Are my children happy? healthy? Are they thriving? Do I spend quality time with them? Do they have a roof over their heads and nutritious food in their mouths? The answer is yes. Then I also make sure I make time for myself – exercise is another passion of mine, it’s good for both body and mind.
This International Women’s Month has me thinking of how proud I am of not only myself and how far I have come, but also every other mother/parent out there, especially the ones going it alone, working or otherwise – it’s no easy feat, let’s be honest. And if more of us were open about the daily struggles of achieving a work/life balance rather than just showing the good bits or feeling as if we have to elaborate the truth, and if companies offered more support around making that even a fraction more possible for mums (and dads alike), we’d perhaps feel less of the pressure.
I hope my children grow up to appreciate how hard I work, I hope they watch their mum go to work every day, build a business from scratch, form relationships with my patients and feel that subsequently, they can do the same, whatever that may be for them.
Natasha Lucy is a fully qualified Nurse Prescriber and the founder of Natasha Lucy Clinics in Essex.
