What I miss about my old ‘working life’

July 2020

Raring2go franchisee Kerri experienced the guilt that most mums have when working full time, missing family time and hearing about what her children had done at school that day, then things changed when she bacame a Raring2go franchisee!

I miss the super early starts; especially after I had children when I would leave home at just after 6am and with luck, get home at just after 7pm. I miss the cost of my train journey and underground season ticket. I miss standing for the hour-long journey into town from my hometown station. I miss the crowds on the underground and getting squeezed like a sardine on to the tube at Victoria.

I miss arriving late at work and having to explain to my manager (again) that the train was responsible. I miss the crush at the station, in the evening, when racing to get the right train that would get me home at a decent time so I could spend time with my children.

I miss the feeling of deflation on hearing announcements telling me (and hundreds of others) that my train was cancelled, which meant twice as many people would be scrambling to board the subsequent train. I miss getting in late and being able to only peek in through the door as my children slept.

I miss trudging through the week, with the weekend as my target, when finally I would get to do some fun family stuff. I miss getting to the weekend only to find I was too tired to do anything other than sleep and recharge my batteries for the week ahead. I miss family holidays, when after the first week, when I was beginning to unwind, I started thinking (dreading) about my return to work and my normality. I miss my partner telling me how positive the meeting with my children’s teachers had been and learning how well they were doing at school. I miss watching videos of my children in school plays and sports days. I miss having to pay the child care costs. I miss daily feelings of anxiety, stress and aggravation at how poor my life work balance was.

There’s lots of things I miss, but all this reminiscing is no good. That was then….

My life today is a bit different. I bought a Raring2go! franchise two years ago and my life has changed massively since. I’m not earning the salary I was back then, but then again I’m not paying for an annual season ticket or childcare and I work a fraction of the hours I used to. I don’t find crowds of commuters anymore, but occasionally I have to queue for a latte at my local café on the way home from the school run.

Nowadays I’m the one watching my kids at their school plays live and planning our weekend activities with energy and passion. My day doesn’t start until my children have gone to school. I do the AM and PM school run and really love the walk to school and the walk home again after, hearing how their day has been.

I now work 30 hours a week, which is around twice as much time as I used to spend commuting each week. I’m very productive in the time I do work and don’t feel a single second is wasted, unlike my train journey time when I was commuting. I also don’t have any stress or anxiety and when I do feel a little pressure, I just reach out to my fellow franchisees who always lift me.

I now know what having a life work balance means and for the life of me, I wouldn’t go back to how things were before or change a single thing. I’m Raring2go! in my business and personal life and I love it.

Find out more about the Raring2go Franchise opportunity and how you can run your own home-based business. Click below now!