Freelancing with children (or with other caring responsibilities)

This blog is kindly written for Museum Freelance by Sarah Shaw, freelancer and director of Museum Tales.

Hello! I’m Sarah, mum to two beautiful boys aged 7 and 3. Over the years I’ve worked both salaried and freelance – re-joining the freelance world in 2019 on a permanent basis.

To give you a bit of background, I spent a lot of my 20s and early 30s on the East Coast Main Line – traveling for work all over the country. That carried on when my youngest was born, but it was starting to grate. I was missing the very things I’d always dreamt of going to – the school plays, the parents’ evenings, the picks ups. Trying to spread 4 weeks of annual leave over 12 weeks of school holidays wasn’t working and I knew something had to change.

In October 2019 I made the leap and handed in my notice. I sought advice from the amazing freelance community and soon secured a couple of contracts. My plan was to work term time only, which touch-wood has worked well. This was my personal choice, and freelancing gave me the vehicle to do it.

Setting goals

Firstly, and I would recommend this to all freelancing parents, I gave myself a set of goals:

  • To do work I enjoy, on my terms

  • To be available for the school holidays

  • To push myself and my career through the projects I choose

  • To be able to attend key events and occasions linked to the children.

I told myself that I had to stick to these, to ensure that I didn’t take on too much and end up working full time again.

My best friend gave me a copy of the inspiring Freelance Mum by Annie Ridout. With this in my hand I made far clear, less emotional and more objective decisions about going freelance. I was practical and used the Museum Freelance website to ensure that this time I was fully prepared for freelance life as a mum:

  • I put a pension scheme in place

  • I bought professional indemnity insurance along with life and critical illness insurance

  • I got a new business bank account (I can recommend Starling) which had easy to use functions so I could track income and expenditure. I was rapidly putting in place the tools I needed to make freelancing as easy as possible.

Decide on your working hours

I also, on the advice of another freelancing parent, set myself strict working hours. This allowed me to plan my work around key events and childcare, and set hours enabled me to negotiate hourly rates for my children at their nursery and after school clubs. This was a massive cost saver and worked alongside the Childcare Voucher scheme which I could claim through my company. I saved further money by negotiating a sibling discount when my second son joined the nursery, and got discounts for recommending friends. It really does pay to make friends with your childcare provider!

When needed, I’ve also relied on friends and family to provide ad-hoc care, but the majority of the time we’ve worked it out between ourselves and our childcare providers. I’ve stuck to my guns with clients about dates and availability, trying to ensure that I don’t overstretch myself and lose sight of my goals.

Don’t forget, depending on how you set yourself up you can also claim statutory maternity pay.

The impact of Covid-19

Then of course, came Covid. As with families across the county life was plunged into chaos. My new found freedom again came at a price. The work I’d secured to last me for 8 months disappeared over night. I was asked to shield (and not in a super hero type way), facing potential debilitating illness with no sick pay and to boot had two small children to entertain and home school for 6 months.

After quite a lot of panicking, my husband and I agreed working days. I’m not lying when I say that I hid from my kids on those days. I’d actively walk out the front door and then sneak back in when they weren’t looking to allow me to get on with my work. These exploits gained me a lot of followers on Twitter!

But, with clear boundaries in place, we did it! We got through a pandemic and home schooling with two businesses firmly in tact at the end of it! I cannot understate how difficult it was and continues to be… but that’s another story.

Set yourself up to succeed

My advice to anyone going freelance with children is to set yourself up to succeed. Put in place the childcare and fiscal structures to get you going on the right foot. I found it helpful to have set work patterns in place, you might find the joy in being able to work random hours of the night and day to fit around your little one. However you do it, enjoy it and make it work for you.

I made the leap because I knew I won’t get these days back with my children. In return, they won’t get back the stressed out parent who was never there.

Huge thanks to Sarah for writing this piece for Museum Freelance. You can find out more about Sarah, the office cat and her life as a freelancing mum on Twitter and LinkedIn. And if you’d like to write something for the blog please get in touch with Marge by emailing [email protected].

Marge Ainsley