To ask the advice of self employed women who have had/having a baby?

[Thelampshadelady]

I’m self employed and very happily expecting my first baby in May.

Maternity allowance only allows 10 kit days.
So, how do you keep your business going so that you have something to go back to after say, 9 months if you can’t work more than 10 days? (As I understand it even working one hour is classed as one kit day)

What did you do? Go back to work earlier? Or have 9 months and potentially sacrifice the business?

I was thinking of taking 3 months and losing the MA as I’m worried about losing clients (I will definitely lose custom if I have longer than 3 months off). I’m planning on returning part time. If I take longer than 3 months I also have to pay rent for the space I rent to do my job. My landlord is kindly allowing me 3 months free.

I then hear and read things on here which are concerning me regarding leaving baby for example ‘baby will only sleep on me’. How can I leave a baby in nursery in that situation?

I also don’t understand how somebody can claim salutatory maternity pay from an employer and then work as many self employed days as they please without it affecting SMP but somebody claiming MA can only work 10 days?

Please offer me some advice. There never seems to be much support for woman taking a short maternity leave but I know I’m not the only one!

The closer May approaches the more worried I feel. Especially when people tell me how dreadful it will be and how awful I will feel going back so soon, although not so long ago woman like my mum, I managed when 3 months was the normal arrangement. I feel my options are limited. My friends solution was to ‘just squirrel some more money away to take longer off like I did’ (she’s employed) but it isn’t so much the money I’m worried about it’s about having a job to go back to. Everyone I speak to seems to miss the point.

After you've done the 10 kit days, the specific number of days you work come off your mat leave, you don't lose it altogether once you work an 11th day. Or this was the case in 2009. They just recalculate.

Don't so dribs and drabs of work each day. Work on a specific, say, two days of the week to do what you need to keep things afloat.

Ah ok. I was under the impression once the kit days were worked you lost MA. I will put this to my accountant to ask if it’s still the same.
Thank you.

Doing the odd email here and there doesn't count as a KIT day so I've been only counting days where I've made money and tried to lump as much of this as possible onto one day. If I'm sat on the sofa replying to emails or avoiding my tax return then I haven't counted it.
My baby really will only sleep on me but invest in a decent sling and you can still get a lot of work done.

My problem is I have to physically see clients (think along the lines of hair/beauty/physio/therapist) in order to keep clients happy. This obviously means baby can’t be with me.
It just seems so tricky.

I would have lost too much business, I just went back to work and I took the babies with me, I had one of the travel cots with all the bells and whistles, when they're tiny they just eat, sleep and poop. The bigger they got, the bigger the playpen got. They love coming to work with me but I mix it up, childcare from family, nursery when the time was right and now school. They come with me in the school holidays. It has been hard but I do feel like I've managed to keep a balance between keeping the business going and being a mum.

Are you a dog groomer OP?

I didn't bother with maternity allowance and only took a month off after my DD was born after I'd works right up until the bitter end of the pregnancy!

Luckily because I'm a freelancer and work remotely I was able to pick it back up again and no one knew I was sat in my pjs, hair unwashed with a baby on my boob for most of the day!

No squirrel. I look after humans (although I would love to groom dogs all day! They don’t answer back )
Did any of you resent going back so early? I’ve been convinced for so long it will be fine and now I’m starting to wobble.

Both times I crammed as many pupils as possible into one day a week for a bit, worked enough not to lose my business. I actually only had three weeks off entirely. I didn't take the mat pay for long, I wouldn't have had a business.
I fed the DCs straight before seeing people then put them in their cot. I taught in short bursts of an hour at a time initially. They very quickly learnt not to cry/ make a fuss when I was teaching. Which is sad, really, and it made breastfeeding hard. But I had to keep a roof over our heads and DH's money wasn't enough to do so.
It sucks being self employed for these kinds of things. Illness is probably worse.

Yes music I agree it has its pros but it also has its cons which many others don’t see. (I do sometimes fail to remember what the pros are).

My poor colleague has cancer and has had to take the bare minimum time off due to the financials of self employment.

Interesting most of you are saying you took minimal time off and worked around baby. I appreciate the opinions.

Looking back (it was 26 years ago), it sounds mad, but I didn't take any maternity leave, apart from the day I gave birth, and the next day when I came home from hospital. That was a Thursday and Friday, so I also had the weekend off. Back to work on the Monday.

My situation was different though, as I was a childminder, so the little boy I was minding came to my house and I didn't need to leave my baby.

I'm in a similar situation re working directly with people. Last time I had 8 months off and although it took a few months my clients did all return so I hope that's some reassurance!

My DD got to 4ish months and refused to sleep anywhere other than the cot so maybe think about encouraging that so you're happier going back knowing that?

I'm self employed and due in May too. I plan to take two weeks off and then return to work, purely because of losing clients otherwise. Baby can be with me however.
It totally sucks, I want time off to get to know my baby, but even if I did take more time, maternity allowance is just not enough to survive on.

I took two very short maternity leaves. With DD I worked from home and paid a family member to come in and look after her for four hours in the house with me just popping in to BF until she was three months old. With DS my DH took parental leave. It was fine, I enjoy working and the long term outweighed having a longer maternity leave.

I took 3 months off totally then did my ten kit days over the next three months (one a week roughly) then went back after 6mo but only three short days (9:39-4) so lots of time still with ds.

I think museumum’s approach is good.

You are right, by the way, that MA stops as soon as you go back to work - there isn’t any flexibility.

As others have said, you need to cram as much as you can into the days when you can work. Presumably you have to stay active with your clients anyway to prevent them from finding someone else who provides your service and not returning to you after making the change.

Nurseries love small babies, so don't fret if yours is littler than the others. I'm from the era when stat mat leave ended after 6 months. I squirrelled away as much cash as possible and ended up back at work full time after 4 1/2 months. The baby was fine, but I didn't get a full night's sleep for at least 2 1/2 years!

I knew there would be others who out there who’ve experienced the same, glad I started this thread to find you. Interesting to see how you all went about juggling business and babies. I’m feeling a bit better this morning.

I have to say I find it incredible that self employed woman get such a crap deal with regards to maternity rights. I honestly thought I was missing something but clearly not. It is that rubbish!

And yes boofay with MA at what it is now I’d have pennies left at the end of the month after paying my rent on my work area. Let alone actually having anything to live on.

Make sure you take your MA for a start, if you're off you're entitled to it.

I always take 6 weeks off. I use my 10 KIT days also. I claim MA for the 6 weeks which is approximately £125/wk so not much but worth having. Then I go back to work with a nanny full time. Typically you can't work and mind a baby and I personally wouldn't even want to try it in terms of quality of life.

In your situation I’d be taking the three months you get rent free off completely then work 1 day / week for another ten weeks (kit) then give up the MA and work wherever you need to break even.
Do you normally see clients on Saturdays? I did my kit days on days dh was off so ds didn’t go to Nursery till 6mo old. This coincided with introducing food so although I bf and ds didn’t accept a bottle it was all fine.

I did more than 10 kit days, disclosed it and they let me keep my entire MA. I was very surprised. I also tried to save up work and then do it all on one long day rather than dribs and drabs.

Just to reply to your post up thread a little about regret, I am really struggling at the moment. DD is 5 months and even DH can see how much it's upsetting me being away from her and missing out on her being so little. I'm seriously considering giving up being self employed, having a few months off and then getting something more regular after the summer.

Hi, I know it’s been a few years since you posted this comment but I’m trying to find out how you disclose KIT days and any other days worked and if you are required to provide proof? I’m newly self employed and don’t know how this all works!

You don’t disclose any kit days to anyone. There’s no requirement to unless they check which is unlikely