About School Runs
When Rachel’s husband’s start-up took off, she put her promising career on hold to look after their daughters. She loved being at home with the girls. But once they started school, to avoid insanity, she followed in the footsteps of so many before her. She devoted her entire energy and time to supporting the girls’ school and the school’s community.
Nonetheless, Rachel’s life is thrown upside down when she learns about her husband’s affair with another mother from the school, who also happens to be someone she truly hates.
When the news breaks out, Rachel is caught off guard by the lack of support from her school girlfriends, who openly believe she should turn a blind eye and let the affair slide.
Over the years, Rachel lost a lot of her confidence and stamina, but deep down, she knows that looking the other way isn’t in her true nature. After a period of indecisiveness and confusion driven by fear over her livelihood, and despite her limited options, Rachel chooses to separate from Jim.
The separation is just the first step on Rachel’s re-discovery journey that will bring her joy and sorrow with a pinch of sweetness that financial and emotional independence carries.
Regrettably, in our modern society, women are still more likely to give up their jobs, dreams and careers to look after children. Those crucial decisions are often driven by inequality of pay and social pressure, which I experienced first-handed.
On top of financial and childcare anxieties, the lack of flexible working hours puts a lot of talented and qualified women out of the workforce, robbing future generations of their talents and innovations.
For women to give up on a career and become financially dependent on their partners is a socially accepted norm. However, those crucial decisions in the prime of our working lives have severe financial and emotional implications in the future (a simple domino effect).
Staying at home with the kids, as lovely as it is, chips away at women’s confidence, which is crucial while competing for jobs often with much younger candidates with fewer obligations and more flexibility. In my experience, being a mother is still seen by many companies as a liability.
Lack of financial independence and work opportunities place women in abusive relationships in life-threatening situations when they often feel trapped and out of options. Help in those circumstances isn’t always available. If finances weren’t an issue, many of those women stuck in abusive, controlling partnerships would be more willing to leave and start all over again.
Rachel’s story is a blend of life stories I’ve heard and situations I’ve witnessed or experienced in my life ever since I started school runs with my son.
This website, which is an essential part of my “School Runs” project, has been created for anyone who is travelling the stormy seas of re-discovering their lost self while trying their hardest to steer towards financial and emotional freedom.
I sincerely hope this website and Rachel’s story will inspire many of you to re-claim and reconnect with your full potential.
Happy reading and browsing.
Magda