It’s a question I’ve had quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. It’s always asked in a completely innocent way, but when I’m faced with that question I can’t help but feel my heckles rising slightly.

A couple of weeks ago I did my last radio show and hung up my headphones for a while. During the 18 months I presented a breakfast show I also worked as a freelance journalist and copywriter. It meant that some weeks I crammed in 75 hours of work. Juggled around the fact I had my toddler home every afternoon, you can see I was pretty busy.

Since I finished my radio contract things have been a bit odd. I’ve been back and forth across the country sorting out a huge relocation to Devon, 200 miles from where we currently live. So it’s fair to say I haven’t settled into our new way of life quite yet. But I have still been working – it’s just that this working has been from home.

You see, I am now a Work At Home Mum. This is often referred to in inner circles as WAHM. Despite what someone said to me recently, this doesn’t mean I spend my days drinking cups of tea and sorting my sock drawer. It means I work. At home. And am a mum. Simple?

Not simple.

The thing is, it’s been a while since I last held this title, so I’d forgotten how some people fail to grasp the concept of freelance working. For many, the idea that someone can work from a computer in an office in their home, rather than an office in a building with other workers, is a bit of an odd one.

My daughter still goes to nursery, I still have a pick-up and collect run to do at either sides of the day. I still have clients to please and deadlines to meet. I still spin plates and have various projects on the go at once. Sometimes I have to go out for meetings – and in the future I’ll probably do more days in the office again as I go back to combining my radio work with my writing / editing / copywriting work.

I’m not complaining. I love my life and am very excited about our move to a more family-friendly pace of living in south Devon. But don’t assume that I’m going to be on a permanent holiday.

Because, you know, work at home mums still work.

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The thing is, I don’t think it’s possible to NOT be busy when you have kids. The life of a parent tends to involve constant multi-tasking, as we rush from one place to the other, often trying to remember the next collection time / kids’ party / form that needs to be handed in. Whether you are a working parent or a stay-at-home parent, time always seems to be against you. Or maybe that’s just me.

Anway, I’ve found that since becoming a mum, there is nothing more vexing to me than a time-waster. You know the one: the person at work who calls an unnessary meeting, the cold-caller who rings just as you’re about to hit “send” on a piece of work, the nonsense emails that pile up in the inbox, requiring precious seconds to delete.

I can’t be the only one constantly seeking an extra five minutes in the day. I can honestly say if I had the option of losing a stone or gaining an hour, I’d go with the hour no questions asked.

I’ve only been back as a work-at-home mum for two days. Now, rather than juggling 80 hour weeks with motherhood, I’m juggling 30-40 hour weeks with motherhood (and a relocation 200 miles away). I’ve cut out the commute and slimmed down the work-load. And I’m still time poor. It doesn’t make sense.

And that’s why I’ve come to the conclusion that time is a slippery little bugger. It seeps away from you, trickling like water through your hands. To capture it and stop it from running, you need to be firm. So I’m going to take another look at the spam settings on my inbox, take a stricter approach to fielding calls and be clearer about what I do in which bits of the day.

How do you manage your time and keep it in check? (And don’t say “Give up Facebook” – never going to happen.)

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It’s been an incredibly fun, challenging, inspiring, exhausting 18 months – and I don’t regret one second.

Learning to juggle what is effectively two full time jobs (I’m self-employed) alongside motherhood, a relationship with my husband, seeing my friends, drinking wine and waving a wet-wipe at the dust in my house has been – at all times – eye-opening.

I’ve experienced the tiredness that can only come with getting up at 3.45am every morning, commuting 45 minutes to work, coming home, looking after a demanding toddler, working until 10.30pm and doing it all again the next day. And I’ve survived. More than survived actually – I’ve enjoyed it.

People who work in radio often joke that “there’s nothing like radio”. Truth is, when I left my permanent job in radio to go on maternity leave with my little bundle, I didn’t really miss it. I had achieved all the challenges I set myself in that job and I was ready for a new phase in my life.

It wasn’t until I started covering as a freelancer that I caught the (so-called) “radio bug” again. I remembered what it feels like to suddenly look at the clock and realise you’ve spent four hours laughing and chatting without even realising it. I remembered how good it is to make people feel happy, simply by talking about something or playing a tune on the radio. I was hooked again.

It’s a great medium to work in and I’m sure I’ll miss the daily banter and the ridiculous things I got up to while in the studio. But I’m ready for a change. I’m ready to take life at a bit more of a “normal” pace and discover evenings with my husband again.

I’m not saying that’s it for me and radio. The door is not closed. I still love it and I know I’ll go back. I’m lucky enough to have worked as a presenter, journalist, researcher and producer in my career so far, and I know I’ll return to one of these roles again in the future.

But, for now, I’m going to concentrate on my other work projects that will see me writing and editing full time, from home. I’m going to enjoy taking my toddler to nursery myself, before settling her into a new pre-school in our new home 200 miles away in Devon. I’m going to just be, without the rushing from one thing to another at 100 miles an hour.

When you’re self-employed, it’s easy to take on every project that’s thrown at you. And when you have a financial target in mind, it’s easy to forget to give yourself a bit of breathing space. I don’t want to make that mistake so, for now, I’m setting my sights on a couple of pretty huge and exciting writing projects, which I will be working on from home.

Oh – and I also have the small task of finding a temporary home to rent for the next few months while we buy a house in the idyllic corner of Devon that we have set our heart on.

Wish me luck – I think I’m going to need it!

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