Life & Career

Your to-do list has 27 items, your toddler has decided that today is a clingy day, and your lunch is still sitting untouched on the kitchen counter. Somewhere between the meetings and the meltdowns, you are also expected to take care of yourself.

For working mothers, self-care can easily become another task that never gets completed. Between professional deadlines, childcare and household responsibilities, personal needs often end up at the bottom of the list.

But self-care is not simply about relaxing after a difficult day. It also involves habits that help you protect your energy, manage stress, concentrate on work and maintain a sustainable career.

Research on working mothers has found links between work-family balance, psychological well-being, vitality and sleep-related difficulties. This highlights why support and recovery matter, especially during the early years of parenthood.

The goal is not to become a perfectly organized mother who never feels tired. It…

Between submitting a job application and stopping your toddler from putting a crayon in the washing machine, “I need a break” can start to feel like a full-time career.

Job searching is stressful at any stage of life. Add a toddler, childcare responsibilities, household demands and a career break into the picture, and the process can feel overwhelming very quickly.

There is also a particular kind of frustration that comes with applying for jobs while parenting. You may spend hours updating your CV, preparing for an interview and imagining yourself finally getting back into work, only to receive a short email saying, “We have decided to move forward with another candidate.”

After several rejections, it is easy to start wondering whether the problem is you.

Usually, it is not that simple.

Job searching involves timing, competition, experience, organisational needs and factors you may never even know about. Learning how to…

Your toddler may still need you to explain why the moon follows the car, but your workplace may now expect you to explain what AI is doing too.

Artificial intelligence is changing how people work. Tasks that once took hours can sometimes be completed in minutes, while entirely new tools, roles and ways of working are appearing across industries.

For working parents, this can create an additional layer of pressure. Between childcare, household responsibilities and an already busy workday, finding time to learn another new technology can feel like one more thing on an endless list.

But staying competitive in an AI-driven workplace does not mean becoming an AI engineer.

It means understanding how AI is changing your work, learning how to use it responsibly, and strengthening the human skills that technology cannot simply replace.

Your LinkedIn profile may have been sleeping, but that does not mean your career has to.

Taking time away from work to raise a child can be one of the most meaningful choices a parent makes. But when the time comes to return, the process can feel surprisingly intimidating. The job market has changed, technology has moved forward, old colleagues may have progressed, and you may find yourself wondering, “do I still have what it takes?”

The answer is usually much less dramatic than the question makes it sound. A career break is a pause in employment, not a deletion of everything you learned before it.

First, Stop Calling It “Starting From Zero”

One of the biggest psychological challenges of returning to work is the feeling that you have fallen behind.