After a six-month maternity leave, Nina started work on August 8th, exactly six months to the day of Kenneth’s birth. Normally, this is a serious event for working mothers and their babies around the world. However, in our case, both mom and baby had been running through some intensive Swiss training for this day for over two weeks. Kenneth’s future day care center, like many Swiss day care centers, required (not recommended, mind you) him to come in for increasing dosages of day care life starting two weeks before his official first day and the end of the mother's maternity leave.
In true Swiss organizational style, the day care center plotted out a systematic program (a.k.a. “Eingewohnungszeit”) designed to ease Kenneth into his new environment and allow his mother to get used to spending time without him. On the first day, he stayed for a mere 30 minutes. On the preceding day, his stay was increased by 30 additional minutes for a total of one hour, and so on, until the final test day when he stayed for seven hours. At first, it was really strange not to be with him. I have to admit that during the first two days, I anxiously waited in my car at a parking lot across from the day care center.
Thanks to this program, I actually had a nice first day back at work. I was welcomed back with flowers and chocolate. It was great to see all my colleagues again and I almost forgot to miss my son. By 16:00, however, the maternal urge was quite strong and I was out of my office at 16:30 sharp. With two full weeks of work behind me, I have to say that I am truly enjoying it. This is a pleasant surprise, since I was not too excited about going back to work. Kevin would have found stronger words to express my lack of enthusiasm. In short, I was having fun being a stay-at-home Mom and thought I could have used a couple months more at home with Kenneth. I went back to work partly due to my feminist principals and partly out of pure loyalty to the company for which I have been working for the last five years. The company even promoted me while I was out on maternity leave and I felt that I couldn’t let them down.
Now that I am getting into my new job, I am happy with my decision to return. Although I have been asked to work full-time, I am fortunate to have supportive colleagues who respect my “do not disturb” sign during my once a day session with the breast pump and understand my new FIFO working hours (that’s “First in, First out” for you none-accounting types). With Kevin doing his share of baby and household duties, we have been able to manage this transition well and I feel like I am able to enjoy both motherhood and a great career.
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