My juggling story began before I was a young mum.

As a wife, mum to four children, and Childcare Director, juggling was what I did. In fact, as far back as I can remember, I’d always juggled. Even as a teenager, I juggled my studies, household chores, volunteering and babysitting.

Then, after becoming pregnant and leaving university (and my dream of becoming a Maths primary school teacher), I then juggled the challenges that came with being a teenage mum.

Following our first daughter’s birth, I returned to work whilst studying for a Montessori Teaching Diploma and volunteering within an Early Years Montessori setting. And, alongside being a young mum, I trained and gained more qualifications.

Again, I juggled!

Did someone say twins? And then there were three!

With the birth of our twins, the juggling went to new heights. By this time, with a few years of experience under my belt, I was starting to gain leadership responsibility. I was now juggling the pressures of workplace leadership and family life.

A few years later, our second daughter was born. By this time, I’d developed as a leader and was the Childcare Director for a successful chain of privately owned Early Years settings.

Once again, I juggled.

With my husband also carrying leadership responsibility and our children growing quickly, the wake-up call came when I started having health issues. With the pressures of juggling, we realised something needed to change.

And it did!

Study, work and setting up a business… it never stops!

In more recent years, I have fulfilled more local, term time only roles, to be around more for our children and to try to imbed into our new community – still juggling, but also the frustration of fulfilling roles that didn’t use my coaching and leadership gifts.

After three years of searching for a locally run Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) course, to help me reach my goals, the pandemic pushed me to search online and not stay local.

I loved the ILM Level 5 in Coaching and Mentoring, which took me about a year to complete, where again, I juggled. Whilst studying and completing my coaching hours for my course, I continued with my 4 day a week job, whilst getting my own business off the ground.

Life will always have demands that need juggling!

And whilst juggling these responsibilities, I was also learning to juggle my confidence and limiting beliefs, alongside the expectations of others. From this, I know now that when we juggle, we juggle both internal and external stuff.

Now, even with only one of our children still living at home, I still juggle, but differently. Being a wife, mum, “Grammy”, mother-in-law, and business owner, my life has changed significantly.

And, if I’ve learnt anything, it’s that life will always have its demands and I’ll never get to a point where I’m not juggling. What I see now though, is that it’s about deciding what to juggle and how to juggle well.