the Mumpreneur diaries - the real story
I didn't mean to write The Mumpreneur Diaries. I didn't even mean to be a Mumpreneur. But you know how these things go.
When it became clear that I couldn't afford childcare and going back to work there had to be another option. What could I do that let me see the boys, have something resembling a life and still earn enough money to pay for it all? I came across a company based in London that offered ad hoc childcare for parents. With minimal start-up costs and the only initial labour needed being my own, it was a no-brainer and so, rentamummy was born.
At the same time, I trained (I don't like the word re-train - it sounds like it brainwashes you and erases anything else you knew how to do beforehand) as a Doula, which means I go help women who are about to have, or have just had, babies. The husband says it's a good cure for broodiness, as I get to cuddle the teeny tiny squawky things, but hand them back at the end of the day.
The Mumpreneur Diaries is a real-life account of the year I spent supposedly 'resting' on maternity leave, when in fact I was attending meetings, organising advertising, getting training and overall chasing my tail in ever decreasing circles.
Mumpreneur update
I am - and always have been - foremost a writer. How good? Well, that is up to you... And so to writing it is that I returned. I regularly contribute to the business press as well as parenting titles and TV and Radio. But I haven't lost the mumpreneur spirit altogether (mind you, I manage my own writing business so I guess I still qualify as a mumpreneur anyway!) and have taken the Mosey Jones name over to a little clothing website. Feel free to have a browse if you're so inclined at moseyjones.com.
But though it was pretty tongue in cheek, everything in The Mumpreneur Diaries still rings true. Parenting is a chaotic business, trying to work at the same time a sisyphean task. I'm still horrid to The Husband about 90% of the time but fortunately I seem to have married a cool-headed masochist. Boys One and Two aren't so much feral as 'free-range' I like to think but neither has been scarred by the experience and Mummy seems to earn just enough to feed their Transformers habit.
All in all, it's not a bad life really!
Mx
free The Mumpreneur Diaries extract
If you just can't wait to get your sticky mitts on the must-have read of Spring 2009, check out the little gift from me to you below. A whole three chapters of The Mumpreneur Diaries free, gratis and for nothing.
A word of warning though.
If you haven't clicked on that Amazon link over there by the time you reach page 11 then you'll have to wait even longer than just tomorrow's post to find out what happens and with a read as unputdownable (is that even a word?) as this, can you stand the suspense?
| A taste of mumpreneur.pdf |
what they're saying about The Mumpreneur Diaries...
5 stars...
The Mumpreneur Diaries made me chuckle throughout!
Mosey Jones knows how to tickle the right spot when it comes to entertaining other harrassed mums - she couldn't have done it better if she'd used a gargantuan ostrich feather. Her book was hilarious and really inspiring to other women who want to juggle a life/work balance.I couldn't put it down and I ended up buying a copy for my mum for Mother's Day.
Every honest mum with no pretensions should read this book. Her reference to Mr Tumble from a well known kids' TV programme made me laugh out loud. A great book and one I would highly recommend.
A giggle of a read, 12 Mar 2009
I read this in one sitting and it made me laugh out loud again and again as I recognised in this account of a year in the life of a chaotic domestic goddess a reflection of some of my own family life. Light and very entertaining.
A book for every woman, 19 Mar 2009
In this book every woman should see a bit of herself. Whether they are 'ladies who lunch' or 'hard grafters - getting stuck in', Mosey yearns to put her mark on a new career path and the maternity pay clock is ticking! Will she do it or won't she?
From the "baking-loo" line journey to a bunk up in Wales, Mosey takes us histerically through a year of her life, warts and all, in a diary with genuine laugh out loud moments. The best thing you could give this Mothers Day is laughter.
2 stars...
Go back to the day job, please, 1 July 2010
It was this line on the back of the book that made me read this book:
Mosey's down-to-earth, wry look at life as a frazzled one-woman business is laugh-out-loud funny and full of warmth. This is a 'mumoir' that will inspire, motivate and charm would-be mumpreneurs everywhere.
Unfortunately I was very disappointed.
The book is funny in places, Mosey Jones is clearly a talented writer, but when it comes to the other claims I was neither inspired, motivated nor charmed.
This is a diary of a woman who is completely incapable of organising anything (the joke about a brewery springs to mind). She comes across as selfish, lazy, uncaring, irresponsible, drunk, shockingly disrespectful of her customers (re the last minute research on the internet for her doula job) and to her husband, and completely incapable of caring for children. I hope it was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. The only thing I was motivated to do was mentally yell at her to pull her finger out and do her job properly. I was very surprised to learn she actually continued with her 'mumpreneur' businesses, rather than returning to work, as I don't imagine that anyone who has read or heard of this book would willingly pay for her services. The 'funny' things she admits to doing in this book would make any decent mother ashamed of herself.