Prachi Kulkarni – Story of a working mother

Hello to all my fellow women colleagues at Abzooba, wish you all a very Happy Women’s Day. On this occasion I would like to share my experiences of being a working mother & balancing my work with family life. In my opinion there is never going to be a perfect balance between work life & family life, but it is always about the priority. We have to prioritize depending on time and life phases. It is never difficult for me to decide my priorities at times, so I think my life is well balanced. Here the credit goes to my family.

Being from a well to do educated family, working or my career was never opposed. In fact, they have supported and motivated me in every possible way. Not only my parents but my husband & in laws are also very encouraging. I am indeed lucky to have such an understanding family. Just to tell you one incident – I got an opportunity to a have business visit to USA for a month in the year 2015 in my previous company. My daughter was only 2 years old at then. So, I was hesitant to go and was literally fighting with my manager for the same. At that time my mother-in-law messaged me “Don’t let go this opportunity. Don’t worry about Ira, I will manage everything here.” It was so touching, and it uplifted my spirit & my confidence. So, in a way I owe my career to this amazing strong woman- my Mother-in-Law.

My career also has helped to inculcate many values in my daughter, few being punctuality, independent thinking, taking right decision by considering several possibilities, value of money & savings and value of time that we spend together.

Since last year, this Corona has pressed a very different life onto all of us, everybody is working from home. This itself is a different challenge, focusing on work when family members are around, especially kids. I live in a joint family with 2 kids at home. They are shouting, playing, eating, their online schools, their emotional tantrums, it is all different & difficult. On top of that my daughter was so happy when WFH started because she used to think that now I am available for her any time since I am at home. So, I had to make her understand that even though I am at home I am not available all the time & I am working. It was difficult initially but after few months she understood and now it is going on smoothly.

My colleagues at Abzooba, I would say Abzooba family also plays a very important role in this whole life balancing act. They all, especially my team, supports me so well that I can attend all important events & emergencies well & work in an encouraging environment. Everyone at Abzooba is very approachable and I feel I can easily share my problems with anyone, especially girls from the HR team, they are all superb. They are all concerned about my well-being and tries to understand the problems. I am lucky again to have them. Thanks to my destiny which allowed me to land into Abzooba and then many thanks to Abzooba family for being so understanding & providing opportunities to grow while allowing me to manage my home as well.