• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Training for Translators

Online courses for translators and interpreters

  • Blog
  • Classes for translators and interpreters
    • Consulting
  • Books for translators by Corinne McKay
    • Translate my books
  • About/Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Cart

Mar 05 2015
Corinne McKay

Being a freelancer and being a mom: new podcast

Here’s a cross-post from Speaking of Translation, the podcast I co-host with Eve Bodeux:

Running a freelance business and raising a family can be a great fit, but combining those roles can result in a lot of stress, and requires planning, prioritizing, and of course flexibility and a good sense of humor! For this episode on being a freelancer and being a mom (stay tuned for our next episode on being a freelancer and being a dad!), Eve and I spoke with two moms who balance their significant family responsibilities with extremely active professional lives:

Elena Langdon is a Portuguese-English translator and interpreter and a former chair of the National Board of Certification for Medical Interpreters. She grew up in Brazil and now lives in Massachusetts with her husband and three children, ages 2, 4 and 7. Elena specializes in medical, legal and social science work and is an active interpreter and translator trainer.

Jennifer Nielsen is a Spanish-English translator and interpreter and the immediate past president of the Mexican Translators Association. She is originally from Colorado and now lives in Guadalajara, Mexico with her husband and her twin sons who are almost a year old. Jennifer works with Mexican businesses that are expanding into the US market, especially in the areas of law, marketing and academia.

We pulled Jennifer and Elena away from their extremely busy lives and asked them for their insights on:

  • Maternity leave: how long to take off and how to talk to your clients about it
  • Child care: what their child care situations are, and whether they try to work with their kids at home
  • Managing the uncertainty of freelancing with small kids: what happens when the kids are sick, or the babysitter is sick, or there’s a snow day?
  • Client relations: how much their clients know about their personal lives
  • The boiling point: how do they avoid being overwhelmed by stress and exhaustion, and what do they do when they are overwhelmed?

If you’re a freelancer and a mom, we think you’ll really enjoy this episode!

Click the audio player link to listen online

Right-click the link below to download the MP3.
Chrome/Firefox: Choose “Save Link As”
Internet Explorer: Choose “Save target as”
Safari: Choose “Download Linked File”
Being a freelancer and being a mom

Written by Corinne McKay · Categorized: Freelancing, Interviews, Working from home · Tagged: freelancing mom, mom freelancers, Speaking of Translation, working from home with kids

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Abbi Gutierrez says

    March 10, 2015 at 9:05 am

    Hi. Thanks a lot for a really interesting podcast. I’m just starting out as a freelance translator, and hoping it will be more family friendly than my current job. My little boy is now 2 and half.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      March 12, 2015 at 6:48 pm

      Great, thank you very much!

      Reply
  2. malaudes (@malaudes) says

    March 10, 2015 at 10:49 am

    Corinne, I enjoyed your podcast a lot! Being a mother of a three year old and managing a translation business from home is quite a challenge indeed. Keep on sharing thoughts about freelancing from home and managing home tasks, motherhood, schooling, etc. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      March 12, 2015 at 6:47 pm

      Awesome, glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  3. kmears2015 says

    March 11, 2015 at 9:27 am

    Coincidentally, my colleague published a blog post on this very same issue this week http://inthedeepend.org/
    It’s fascinating to hear how different people address the challenges of combining a successful career with parenting.

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      March 12, 2015 at 6:41 pm

      Awesome, thank you for sending that link!

      Reply
  4. Corinna says

    March 11, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    This was great timing for me this week – my 3yo woke me up at 4am with a fever the very next morning after I listened to this podcast, so when I couldn’t get back to sleep after everyone else had, I summoned my non-morning-person superpowers and got to work!

    I agree with all the translators on the podcast that it’s essential to negotiate dates and build in flexibility (to be available for some urgent work as well), but sometimes even this is not enough and the client might just need to know that the translator is human, e.g. when your kid gets chicken pox, then the flu, followed by school vacations… So the other part is to have good relationships with clients.

    If other people’s superpowers don’t include fully functioning writing skills (and immune system) and not sleeping while taking care of sick people, what about when you accept a new project with a short but reasonable date and then the flu takes over your life? I mean on the client relations side, not finding “5+ hours of Caillou” on youtube…

    Reply
    • Corinne McKay says

      March 12, 2015 at 6:41 pm

      Thanks Corinna and glad you enjoyed it!

      Reply
  5. magda at {which translates to...} says

    April 8, 2015 at 3:32 pm

    I am sure this podcast is as interesting as the previous one, Corinne.

    There are lots of us out there. I am currently working while my 5 yr old is playing. School hours are never enough and babysitting is out of the question.

    ๐Ÿ™‚

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to the Training for Translators mailing list!

Learn from our blog:

  • Three things to try on a low-energy day
  • Nudging dormant clients
  • March Marketing madness starts on March 6
  • Being a freelancer and being a parent: postcards from the other side
  • OT: A week in Sayulita, Mexico
  • February master class: Editing and proofreading, with Karen Tkaczyk
  • 2022: the year in review!
  • A test of Cymo Booth as an interpreting back-channel

The original career how-to guide for freelance translators. Over 12,000 copies sold!

Search the Training for Translators blog

Copyright © 2023 ยท Training For Translators ยท Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're OK with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. To view this website's privacy policy, click About>Privacy Policy. Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT