Celebrating 10 Years of Maybe Baby Coaching
So how it all began? 13 years ago, as I approached the age of 35 I found myself at the crossroads of a major dilemma - to have children or remain child-free? It was a real struggle. I found there was very little support or guidance. When I walked into the bookstore, I would search the self-help shelves searching for something to help me. But all the books were either for wannabe parents OR people who were definitely child-free. Nothing much to help people like me who found ourselves directly in the middle!
In the end, after much angst I decided to become a parent.(and I then managed to get my own partner on board and I experienced the very real difficulty when you are with a partner who is not as keen on having a child as you are). Yet, I also realised that I could have had an equally satisfying child-free life if I hadn't had a child. Today I firmly believe that there is no 'wrong choice', there is no privileged position, no better way of life for women.
I realised that if I struggled so much with the decision, other people must be struggling as well. I had gone for career coaching and I had also used coaching skills as a manager, I realised that coaching would be a very appropriate way to help people through the baby decision. Coaching focuses on helping people look at an issue in a different way and explore it from different perspectives. Trust is a big factor in coaching, helping people to learn to trust themselves and their inner wisdom.
As I went through my coach training and accreditation process, I did question my choice to focus on this area and wondered whether there were enough people who were struggling with this decision. But I soon realised how great the need was once I launched Ticktock Coaching 10 years ago.
Throughout the year, I will be celebrating my 10 year anniversary with looking at 'Ten Things I have Learnt As a Maybe Baby Coach' Every month, I will be writing a blog post on one of those ten things I have learnt over these 10 years. Look out for the first post next week.
Another way that I will mark my 10 year anniversary is through carrying out a survey of all my former clients to find out how the coaching impacted upon them and what percentage made the decision to have children and what percentage decided to stay child-free.
I've coached hundreds of people on the baby decision over the years and it's been uplifting and interesting to hear back informally from client but it will be good to get more statistics and data on what decisions people made and how coaching has helped. I'll be publishing those results later in the year here on the blog.
I'm going to be brainstorming other was to celebrate throughout the year too as well I'm thinking of getting an anniversary cake baked and having an afternoon tea part with friends, colleagues and former clients. If you have any ideas, please leave a comment or drop me an email.
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