“It’s like being a CEO at work and at home with no break.”
“It’s not possible.”
“I don’t know how people get through.”
“It was truly exhausting.”
“It’s not worth going back to work when daycare is so expensive.”
“I burnt out very quickly.”
These are just some of the responses we received when The LittleOak Company ran a survey with Australian mothers about their experience returning to paid work. These testimonials paint a grim picture—one of exhaustion, impossible choices and an overwhelming sense of struggle. For too many Australian mothers, the return to work is simply not working.
Our survey found that more than eight in 10 Australian mums are either considering or have already reduced their work hours or left the workforce entirely, due to the overwhelming challenges of juggling paid work and motherhood. This represents a significant loss of talent in the workforce, with an undeniable impact on productivity and the economy as a whole.
On the flip side, many women find themselves accepting part-time roles while effectively working full-time hours. My sister is one of them, paid for three days yet regularly putting in far more unpaid hours, resulting in a significant emotional and physical toll.
Balancing paid work and family responsibilities is also a major source of stress for most mothers. According to our survey, 70 per cent feel this pressure multiple times a week, with more than one in three experiencing it nearly every day. As a mother of three myself—one of whom just turned one—I know firsthand how overwhelming it can be to juggle the demands of paid work and the incredible, all-consuming role of being a mum.
But for me, the most frustrating part of these findings is that they are not surprising. They are not telling us anything we didn’t already know. Rather, they highlight the very real and very pervasive struggles continually faced by mothers each and every day.
And these challenges are deeply entrenched. They are collective, societal issues that must be addressed in order to ensure that mothers are set up for success, and able to participate in the workforce however they choose or need to.
We need affordable and accessible childcare options; we need appropriate remuneration for early childhood educators; we need to shift the outdated gender roles that leave women as the default caregiver at a cost to their professional prospects; we need to ensure that fathers are encouraged to take parental leave; we need workplaces and business to fully embrace flexibility — and not stamp it out as we have seen recently.
While new childcare reform to scrap the activity test and offer most parents access to three days of subsidised childcare a week is a promising step forward, we are still far from implementing a truly universal system.
If we look further afield, the solutions exist. Countries such as Sweden and Denmark have already made great strides in gender equality reporting, as well as progressive parental leave entitlements for mothers and fathers, and universal childcare. These countries prioritise supporting families and enabling mothers to return to work, with the legislation, systems and societal support already in place.
It shouldn’t fall on a woman alone to figure out how to continue working after having children. We, as a collective, must step up to ensure they have the support and resources to thrive at work and at home. Perhaps it’s time to take a different approach.
Just as traditional models of health and wellness have evolved to a more holistic approach — encompassing physical and mental health with a range of different treatment modalities —we must take the same thoughtful approach to supporting mothers in the monumental life transition of postpartum life and returning to paid work. LittleOak’s new Return to Paid Work Guide is just one small way we are contributing to this movement.
Together with experts in childcare, career coaching, nutrition, feeding, sleep and more, we developed a resource intended to help support mothers navigating this transition. And as we pulled this guide together, it grew and grew and grew. How can you navigate conversations with your partner about the division of childcare responsibilities? We’ll need to add that. What about breastfeeding at work? That too. How do I choose the right childcare, and what do my options look like? How do I return to work with confidence and navigate the dreaded “mum guilt?” What conversations should I be having with my employer – both before and after parental leave? What about sleep schedules and nutrition to ensure overall health? It truly is a holistic approach, written by mums for mums.
I feel incredibly lucky to be a mother and entrepreneur, running a company dedicated to supporting families. I launched LittleOak as a solo mum with the goal of providing parents with the formulas I wished I had access to when I was raising my own children. But our commitment goes further than this. We are intent on supporting mothers in every part of their parenting journey —feeding and beyond. That’s why, last year, we launched our Power of Mum initiative, a campaign dedicated to driving real, meaningful change for mothers in Australia and across the globe.
All mothers work. Whether they’re working in paid employment or full-time carers at home, most mothers carry the heavy domestic load of caring for and raising a child. And carrying that load is no easy feat. Being a mother is hard. In fact, it’s one of the hardest, most important jobs in the entire world.
At LittleOak, we believe in the Power of Mum. Harnessing this strength involves recognising and valuing the contributions of mothers everywhere, providing support systems, and fostering environments where they can thrive. Because when mothers thrive, so do families, workplaces and communities.