Activity 3: Networks for Family Support

You already know the importance of being well-connected with other people in your social life. The social networks offer many opportunities for it. Further to the benefits of becoming more visible, creating some useful connections and collecting and finding information for your future job, you can also find some useful information there, where and how to find childcare services.

As mothers we cannot feel secure and happy if our children are not secure and taken care for. Probably the first most important thing before we go back to work after the period of staying home with the kids is to find the proper childcare for them. Here we will provide some useful tips to help you use the potential of networks for childcare. There are 3 main types of childcare options: kindergartens; childcare centers; and family/ friends/ neighbours’ care.

• What are the age and needs of your kids?
• Do you need part-time or full day child care? (you might be working on shifts, please consider all aspects of your potential needs)
• Do you have the finances needed to pay for the childcare or you have to look for financial aid?

• Talk to as many as possible friends, family members, neighbours to check what advice/help they can offer you.
• Use your social networks presence and connect/follow organizations/foundations/associations/groups that work in this area. You can use the search engines of the social networks, as well as the biggest global (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) and local ones.
• Further to standard use of social networks for search on the topic of childcare, you can expand your knowledge looking for Blogs for working moms or their online groups.
• Last but not least – being the citizen in a country or a city, the local authorities provide certain help to mothers, as all EU governments care for the positive birth rate and the quality of people’s life.

Once you have found all the options you can afford for the childcare, you should make the last step: Organize the care for your kids and go back to work.

If you can afford: plan a test (customization) period during which your kid/s will be getting the childcare services you have found for them, but you will still stay at home (not staring work) in order to help them (and yourself) getting used to it.

Here are 3 reasons why it is important for you to get back to work:

a) Working moms provide positive role models to their kids;

b) Working moms raise more independent kids;

c) Working moms are less prone to depression.

So, heads up – the best is yet to come!