Little acts of self-love

Australian-Finnish businesswoman Peggy Saas started up her blog Cake crumbs and beach sand earlier this year and has just published her own eBook, entitled The Self-Love Guide for the Working Mum. Here she tells Workingmums.co.uk what inspired her and how she manages life as a working mum.

Workingmums.co.uk: When did you start up your blog and why?

Peggy Saas: I started my blog July of this year after a friend asked me over dinner if I had thought of starting one. I hadn’t thought of it, but then I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I eventually decided it would be the perfect forum for feeding my creative side and my love of writing.

WM: You say on the site that you run a small business. What does the business do and did you set this up after you had children?

PS: I co-own a small medical practice where I work fulltime managing administration and supervising staff. I joined the practice 4 years ago when my son was 6 years old.

WM: How many children do you have and what are their ages?

PS: I have 1 son, he is 10 years old.

WM: You mention your own mother on your blog. How important was she as a role model?

PS: My mother was an integral part of my learning how to balance motherhood, work and family. She is a fiercely independent woman who managed to take care of 2 children and work fulltime for as long as I can remember. She always appeared to have it together – home cooked meals on the table and house immaculate. She is my idea of the perfectly well-balanced working mum.

WM: Why have you decided to write a self-love guide for working mums?

PS: I decided to start documenting my struggles and achievements as a working mum when I started my blog. I love to share and hopefully inspire others and found when I posted articles related to working motherhood I had a great response from my readers. One of my regular readers commented on a post I wrote about keeping sanity intact as a working mum, she mentioned that it would make a good eBook. I took her advice and decided to document tips that work for me to share with other mums.

WM: What kind of areas does it cover?

PS: The eBook essentially contains no-nonsense tips for working mums in maintaining balance, calm and power over the busy working mum role. The main context is self-love and applying it just as we would looking after our health or keeping up our appearance. I believe self-love is paramount to maintaining self-worth and self-respect during difficult and busy times. The eBook highlights small but effective ways to practice self-love in all areas of our lives.

WM: What is the main advice you would give to working mums?

PS: I know from my experience it is imperative to look after yourself. When working mums are busy managing a job, keeping kids dressed, fed and happy, and maintaining a household it is too easy to forget to feed one’s own soul. I think that is the key – keeping yourself refreshed and looking after ‘you’ is vital. We tend to forget to nurture ourselves before we forget to look after others.

WM: What has doing your blog given you? Do you get a lot of feedback?

PS: My blog has given me a real sense of community in the blogosphere, I seriously had no idea how warm and welcoming it would be. I love chatting to other women and finding out what makes them tick. I love sharing ideas and reading about the ideas of others. I get a tremendous amount of feedback given my small number of readers and the few months I have been writing my blog. I love getting feedback, it provided me with some very important ideas when formulating my eBook.

WM: Do you have any plans for any further books or projects?

PS: I have a head full of future plans! Writing has always been my passion and my blog has only cemented that. I intend to continue blogging and I have another eBook along the same context as The Self-Love Guide for the Working Mum in mind. I am currently working on a social media project with a small local business. I am also passionate about Finnish food and food photography and hope to merge the two into a project down the track.

WM: How do you manage work and family life?

PS: All the points I mention in my eBook are exactly how I manage work and family life. I sleep well, I eat well and I take time out when I need it. I ask for help, I rest when I need to and I don’t let work encroach on my family time (although in the past have had to). I don’t make excuses, I am realistic about the pressure and I accept I cannot change some aspects but I can manage them. I make time for the small moments and put aside chores for quality family time. And most of all I practice frequent acts of self-love and nourish my soul doing the things that bring me most joy. Some people have the impression self-love is about narcissism but it isn’t. It is about caring for yourself, treating yourself with respect and taking responsibility for yourself. I believe that is the least we can do to maintain calm in our busy lives.