SUDDENLY, I’m back in the world of 9-to-5 work, amidst the hustle and bustle of constantly ringing phones, meetings and deadlines.

Life at home has been nothing if not busy, but the whole back-to-work thing; well, it’s still a shock to the system and sometimes I think I’ve lost my mojo.

At times I feel I’m in a foreign land. Everything’s familiar, yet different, like those cursed acronyms that once flowed with such ease from my lips. Someone’s gone and changed them all and it seems like I’ve lost my voice.

And it’s not just me who’s having adjustment issues. The kids are having to do a little bit more themselves. Even with me only in the office three days a week, it’s still a challenge at the end of the working day to sort out dinner, help the kids with their homework, keep abreast of domestic chores and prepare for the next day.

Of course, the reality is that most mums have to go back to work, many before they or their kids are really ready, in order to make ends meet and a lot of mums returning to work are not nearly as fortunate as me. They have to take up full-time positions and find little flexibility at their workplaces to be able to make important events or appointments with or for their children. While the high cost of child care makes the financial benefits of working marginal at best.

As a result, a number of resilient and ingenious mums I know are finding ways to work from home by starting up home-based businesses and using technology to reach their market.

The Grattan Institute recently released a paper claiming that increasing female participation in the workforce could boost our economy by $25 billion. That’s a lot of bucks, but if you talk to mums about their experiences of going back to work, it seems a lot of workplaces have a long way to go to be family friendly.

This is probably why only 67 per cent of women aged between 15 to 64 are currently in paid work compared with 78 per cent of men.
Still, I know that for me it’s just a few teething problems and I’m pretty lucky. My workplace is family friendly, my colleagues are supportive, my boss understanding the whole “mum going back to work jitters”, and there’s flexibility to accommodate those of us who need to work part time or fit in with school hours. So, despite its many challenges, I know in time I’ll get that old mojo back and be confident back again in the big wide world of work.