This week Frankie Tortora and Steve Folland have a chat in response to a question from freelance content marketer Stephanie Dunn. She says:

“I’ve been on maternity leave since October but have recently taken on a couple of one-off projects and am now looking to work on a more ongoing basis.

I would like — am trying to — work around looking after my 7-month old daughter: Essentially full-time mum, moonlighting as a content marketer.

My husband works away so some weeks he’s here and can take her, but some weeks I don’t have childcare. Grandparents aren’t on our doorstep but can step in if I really need to go out for a meeting or something. 

Up until the last month, she slept really well, went down easily and slept through the night so I would work in the evenings for a couple of hours. Now though, she can take hours to go to sleep and wakes up in the night so it’s messing with our routine a little! 

I’ve tried to do some work in the day while she plays… but this is not possible (an email takes a day to write!!) and I feel guilty as I’m doing neither of my jobs well.

On top of this, I write very little of my own marketing content (not great for a content marketer!) as I need to use all of my limited time to work for actual money jobs.

Anyway, I’m about to start a new project so we’ll see how it works out… but wondering if I’m wanting it all by trying to do it this way!”