… or What I’ve Learnt as an Artist-Mama, Working From My Living Room, With a Young Child

We made it through to school age! I have a little school-goer! What a ride. Caring for small children is a job in itself. I honestly don’t know how we as parents have time to breathe sometimes, let alone focus on ourselves for part of the day and *gasp* HAVE A CAREER. All I know is, if you’re going through it (and you’ve all not throttled each other yet), hats off to you.

These tips are quite general. Having a young child around the house is a trying time for everyone. I’m sure all WFH (work-from-home) parents (and even those who work outside of the home) will relate, not just mamas. Read on for what I learnt, and maybe it’ll help you just to know it’s something a lot of people around the world are struggling with. I’m sure non of it is new or revolutionary, but a bit of solidarity goes down well with a cup of tea on a particularly trying day.

1. Double box your art materials! And put up as much high, out-of-reach storage as you can

If they can reach it, they will touch it. Particularly the black. It’s always the black. There’s darkness in the souls of young children that simply must be expressed, apparently. All over your nice clean paper stock.

2. If you’re drawing nudey bits, and you leave it out on the desk, be prepared to explain.

Just saying.

3. Have a strict ‘no drinks’ policy around your desk, and your tech, and a no ‘sticky fingers’ policy…

Ok, this will be impossible. If you so much leave anything that can be made grubby, children will go out of their way to make it so. Even if you’ve just wiped their fingers. I don’t want to think about what they make half of those marks with.

That’s the practical side of things. Now on to how to save your sanity, self-esteem and some semblance of basic hygiene.

4. Don’t be under the impression that you will keep a professional appearance at all times.

Pj’s and comfies are just workwear here, barring the hours of maybe 10-2pm. If I have to be seen in public before or after that, well: that’s what coats are for. Maybe once a week I put on actual grown-up clothes first thing in the morning, even when I don’t have to meet anybody, and don’t I feel swish. I challenge you to do better.

5. Get a decent set-up, from the Get-Go.

My posture is awful. My chair is too high, my screen too low. I cram in between my desk and my shelves, whilst doing an awkward quarter turn towards my graphics tablet. Save your joints. I already have chronic pain: you’d think I’d have learnt, but no. I don’t need to advise regular stretching exercises, because you already have a toddler who ‘needs’ you to get down on the floor with them and play with that one little figurine. Again. And every two minutes after that. No use climbing back up to your desk actually. Maybe you don’t need that fancy set-up after all.

6. You will Develop an iron Sense of Self Control…

… but not before you’ve gone through a period of unbridled self-indulgence, relishing the fact that you have an open plan living room/kitchen/work area, and love snacks. And The Child is asking for snacks constantly anyway, so you can’t avoid that short walk to the snack cupboard. No tips here. I still drink too much coffee, but I think I just got bored of the sugar highs.

7. It’s ok if you dont ‘have it together’ for a while.

My productivity levels are all over the place. It depends on if there are school holidays, if there’s a sick boy (or mama, or papa) resting on the couch, how much we’ve been up in the night… and that’s ok. We’re creative people, so I suppose we need to give in and apply that to our business schedule too. It’s tough not being able to apply myself full force when the muse hits, but I’ve been trying to be softer on myself and use any downtime to rest and contemplate, instead of wringing my hands in frustration. Ok, I still do that, but I’m getting better at it.

It also means I utilise what time I DO have really well, if I do say so myself. I managed to knock all these out in the two weeks before our first summer break-

And then once in the holiday, this was my entire plan for marketing my 2024 calendar (which was a huge project for me this year so I really need to put a lot of effort in to marketing)…

… yeah, that was the best I had at the time. Once I write EVERYTHING down, and in multiple planners and calendars, I usually don’t need to look at it again because it’s filed in my brain. If I don’t write it down, however, I’d get to November then remember that I hadn’t finished the calendar yet. It doesn’t matter if you have an analogue or digital agenda system, but USE IT! Planning doesn’t have to be pretty (although I’m a major sucker for pretty stationery, especially as a visual person) it just has to be DONE.

So I hope that you at least feel a little bit comforted if you remember that the pressure we and society put on ourselves to be ‘switched on’ or pushing our career as soon as our children are barely able to mumble ‘mama’ is absolute nonsense, and absolutely not helpful when applied to the messiness of everyday life. Chuck that pressure out the window.

Also worth looking at is this fantastic book ‘The Motherhood of Art’ by Melissa Huber and Heather Kirtland. A look at lots of other artist mamas (but could easily apply to papas and carers) and how they make it through the day as a creative with little ones.

(Not a promo: my sister gave it to me and it reassured me I wasn’t alone as a WFH creative on this parenting/work struggle).

I’ve also been hearing the idea going around a lot at the moment that you don’t stop being an artist (creative, crafter etc.) if you’re not actively making art. YOU ARE STILL AN ARTIST. This is just a season, and your creativity will re-kindle, and I hope you can be kind to yourself if things aren’t quite perfectly in balance.

Take care,

L x