You’ve got to get yourself off to work, and you’ve got the kids (and sometimes husband) to deal with as well. This can be quite a challenge. You’re not alone. Most working Mums face the same challenges.

As a Real Mum, you can avoid complete breakdown in your morning schedule by putting some plans into place, and starting your morning the night before.

Before you go to bed:

Take the stress and rush out of mornings by doing as much as you can the night before. This could include things like:

• Set the coffee machine to brew your coffee 5 mins before you get up (if you don’t have an automatic coffee machine - get one now!).
• Lay out clothes for yourself and your kids the night before.
• Your husband or partner (if applicable) is an adult and should surely by now be able to fend for him or herself.
• In fact, forget the laying the clothes out, put the kids to bed in the clothes they’re going to wear the following day.
• In which case, we’d recommend the night-time routine is dinner first, then bath & bed, not bath before dinner.
• Scream at the kids to get all their crap together in one pile for school, preschool, whatever the next day.
• Continue to scream at them until they do so. Confiscate a DVD, GameBoy or other item of value if necessary.
• Check out the weather forecast for the following day. There is a vague chance it could actually be correct and you can be prepared for it, including the traffic conditions (like with heavy rain and the like).
• Get the brekkie stuff organised. Put it back, because whatever you get out will be wrong anyway. At the very least, decide what you want, organise that and then you can do the “I told you so” bit when you’re organised and no-one else is.
• Work out what time you have to leave. Then set the alarm about an hour and a half before that time.
• Go to bed in your clothes for the next day. The crushed look is in! When it’s out, you can just say you’re rebelling against the conformist nature of the fashion industry and refused to be sucked into commercialism. Go shoe shopping.

Give yourself more time in the morning:

• Work out what time you need to leave, at the latest. Then add half an hour. Then another hour. And another half an hour again. You might just be able to get out the door, ooh, 10 minutes later than you’d actually like.
• Wake everyone else in the house.
• Yell at them to get off their bottoms and get organised. NOW.
• Disappear for a quick power kip. If you’re not around to do stuff for them, they’ll have to do it themselves.
• They will learn quickly that hunger can be a pain in the bum when they haven’t got their lunch that day.
• Pack all the kids into the car, then go back inside and get ready for your day. This way, you don’t have to fight for the bathroom or have anyone hanging off your leg.

Listen to the Radio:

• Dancing and singing while preparing for work can help you and the kids get motivated into action.
• It also helps to remove grumpiness.
• This is even better if you have teenagers, because you can sing really loudly to the songs that they think are cool, and are, in fact, re-releases of your fave songs from the 80′s
• You may also find out if there are any traffic problems that are likely to get in your way.

Get the Kids Involved:

• We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again; if you keep doing stuff for your kids, they won’t learn to do it for themselves and will continue to expect you to do it for them.
• They will soon learn to get involved when they’ve had to do school swimming in their undies three weeks running, or miss out on really cool lunches. Oh, and when they consistently go to school with bed hair.

Get Out the Door Early:

• Singing remakes of your favourite 80′s songs goes a long way to getting the kids moving.
• Otherwise, because you were the only one that listened to you, you’ll be organised and they won’t. So, grab your stuff, announce to the household you are leaving now, count to three then walk out the door and start the car up.
• You won’t believe how quickly kids can get dressed, get their essentials together and be sitting in the car, seatbelts on and ready to go.

(Well, we know you’ve been working as a Mum, but we’re talking returning to paid work)

You’ve decided, for whatever reason that you’re going to return to work, after being “just a Mum” for the last 6 months, two years, five years, 12 years, whatever.

But who’s going to want you? What skills do you have? After all, you’ve only been someone’s parent for the last however long. What skills could you possibly have developed in that time?!

And how do you translate this onto a resume?!

Easy! Especially if you’re a Real Mum.

The standard template for a resume is pretty straightforward. It looks something like this:

• Personal Details
• Career Objective or Personal Statement 
• Education and Academic Qualifications 
• Relevant Skills and Abilities 
• Relevant Employment and Work Experience 
• Professional Development 
• Special Skills and Achievements 
• Interests 
• References

It’s the Relevant Skills and Abilities and the Relevant Employment and Work Experience that are the problem bits. You’ve been at home. Caring for kids. What could be relevant?

Hmm, let’s see. How many times a day did you find yourself saying, “Get dressed now or you can stay behind”? Or perhaps “If you don’t pick your toys up RIGHT NOW I will throw them in the bin”? Or maybe you did the old “Stop jumping on the bloody beds. I’ve just made them and you’ll hurt yourself”?

And by “saying” I actually mean “screaming at the top of your lungs”.

I think that pretty much translates to “Communication”, don’t you? You’re effectively able to communicate to your team exactly what needs doing, when the task must be completed, and the consequences of not completing the task in the desired time frame.

There were also those days that required ensuring everyone had lunches, books, homework, swimming bag and relevant swimming accessories, soccer gear, ballet shoes, brief case, clean clothes … And those where soccer training clashed with ballet classes, at the same time as hubby was returning from his interstate business meeting.

“Organisation” is the key to this one, not only did you successfully get everyone to their appropriate destinations on time, but the appropriate equipment also went with the appropriate offspring. Most of the time, anyway.

Oh, and those days where you had to feed the baby, clean poo off the walls, do the ironing, remove breakfast from the table, floor, walls and … ceiling?, pick children up from school at the designated time, and prepare dinner. I’d say your ability to “Prioritise” is up there with the best of them!
The “screaming at the top of your lungs” also includes screaming such things as “If you two don’t leave each other alone I’m going to smack your heads together” and “If you hit your brother again, you will NOT be going to that party this afternoon”.

There, “Conflict Management” and “Human Resources” all rolled in to one.

And how many times did you build a sandcastle when you really wanted to lie on the beach reading a book? Or have spaghetti bolognaise three nights running, when a nice chicken and spinach risotto was all you craved? Shared your ice cream? Sat in the corner of the wardrobe and scoffed your stash of good chocolate so no one else would see you and ask for some? If that doesn’t make you a “Team Player” then I don’t know what does? Easy!

Under your Relevant Skills and Abilities heading, you now have:

• Ability to effectively delegate and communicate, to a diverse range of people, duties and responsibilities, including tasks required and deadlines;
• Consistent and efficient organisation and time management of a number of tasks and responsibilities;
• Ability to manage and prioritise conflicting responsibilities;
• Ability to communicate has enabled me to effectively perform conflict management. I am also able to foresee and prevent any potential imminent conflict;
• Ability to work within a team, to understand the needs and wants of other team members, and to ensure the co-operation and co-ordination of all team members.

There you have it … pages and pages of skills you’ve not only developed, but that you’ve honed to perfection. Possibly aided by a good chardonnay. You’re only trouble now is cutting them down to fit on your resume.
Who wouldn’t want you?!