Preparing to return to work after parental leave is like preparing a kid for kindergarten. There are lots of emotions and new routines, yet your first day back may not come with games and an early release.
Let’s prepare you to return from parental leave like preparing your firstborn for their first year of school. Here’s how your child may need preparation:
- School Clothes Shopping
- Backpack filled with school supplies
- Meet the teacher day
- Homework rules
Now let’s flip the script to a parent returning from maternity or paternity leave.
Tackling the closet to build confidence
For a child getting ready to go back to school, there’s often an end-of-summer closet cleanout. Kids outgrow clothes quickly, and often tear holes or get grass stains while playing hard. Those outfits get donated or thrown away. Then comes back to school shopping to pick out new school clothes that fit, and a school picture outfit.
For parents, your bodies have likely changed, too. Parents who used to routinely workout may find their only workout lately is balancing a baby on their hip. Birthing parents, you grew a new human! It’s normal that your body is different now than it was before you experienced pregnancy and delivery. Let’s go to your closet to find 5 to 10 outfits that you feel good wearing and that fit your needs as a new working parent. Follow these steps for your closet project:
- Purge or donate the items that need to go
- Move to the back shelf the items that may be worn again someday
- Replace or rent with items that fit your working parent era
Think of your work attire like gear. As Jackie, an expert in parental leave, likes to say “you would not run a marathon in shoes that don’t fit.” Your work clothes have a purpose. It may be adhering to the dress code. It may also be practical pumping shirts. Organize and replenish your closet to help you feel as confident as a kindergartener going into school on picture day.
Supplies
Kids often go back to school with a new backpack filled with school supplies. Like a well-stocked school backpack or your diaper bag makes a difference, your back-to-work bag is essential.
For new parents, have a work bag ready with:
- Medications – prepregnancy and any new postpartum prescriptions
- Period products – because you never know when they’ll be needed again
- Phone charger – for stress-free communication with childcare
- Snacks & a water bottle
Pumping parents may also want a pumping kit in your work bag. Consider packing:
- Extra pump parts
- Long phone charging cable for that video call with your baby or that work email
- Shawl for privacy and warmth
- Milk storage bottles or bags
- Cooler and ice packs for milk transport
Set up your back-to-work bag so you can walk confidently into work on your first day, like an excited kindergartener getting on the bus with their full backpack.
Meet, greet, and de-stress
Kindergarteners get the opportunity to meet their teacher and see their classroom before their first day of school to ease their transition into school. Some lucky little ones also get an early release on their first day. How can you give yourself a similar gentle transition? Before your first day back, consider:
- A phone call or meeting with your boss to create a sustainable working parent plan
- Starting back on a Thursday to shorten your first week
- Asking to adjust hours your first week(s) to ramp in
- Bringing your baby to a social reconnection with your coworkers, if it feels right for you
Ask yourself how you can return to work in the most effective way possible. What are your new needs, and what are ways you can compromise with work to meet them? Bringing your needs and ideas opens the door for teamwork and finding a solution that will work for you, instead of stressing or scrambling as you approach your official return to work.
Adult Chores
The TV is often more exciting than that first homework assignment, so some parents may choose to set homework rules. Talking with your partner before school starts about rules to enforce after school days will help you work together, be consistent, and support your child’s success.
Household chores are a parent’s version of homework. Cooking dinner, doing laundry, and cleaning your home are just some of the tasks to fit in after work days and in between family fun-time. Some chores may be done less frequently than before your baby arrived, and that’s okay. Discuss what your new chores and routines will be, and set goals for a holistic operation of your home life. Include accountability in your teamwork conversation, and how you can support each other through this transition.
Generating Positive Energy for the Return to Work
Some kids going off to school are excited, while others are nervous and would prefer to stay home. Many parents ending parental leave can relate to the kid who would rather stay home. To prepare for the upcoming transition, you can tackle the new phase with a confident closet, a packed work bag, a boss meeting and greeting that established a manageable work plan, and a teamwork approach to your household chores. Then, find a reward system for yourself to prime your mind for good associations with work. Focus on your “why” if purpose motivates you. Or dedicate 10 minutes to baby snuggles every time you come home from work. This preparation and mindset shift will help you generate positive energy surrounding your transition back to work.
Subject matter expert: Jackie Cook, Parental Leave consultant, Popins
Written by: Elise Shearer, RN
