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!
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Being a freelancer and being a mom
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.
Great, thank you very much!
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. 😉
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it!
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.
Awesome, thank you for sending that link!
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…
Thanks Corinna and glad you enjoyed it!
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.
🙂