Passionate Blog

Diary of a working mum

In the week when this lady rightly caused a storm by proclaiming her kids were boring (Cue pretty nifty backtracking..'but I never said my children were boring' - no of course not, that's why it said it in the headline.) We have written for the Guardian on a how can we put it? More down to earth view of going out to work when you have children. Ian Wylie, the editor of the Work supplement explained the piece should focus on a particular incident or anecdote to illustrate an issue - and we chose Morgan's sports day (or perhaps Stitchgate as it should be known!) It's great to see the piece in the paper and funny to note that the only little change made was that a reference to Linda using words that would make Chubby Brown blush was removed. Perhaps that would have been more fitting of the Daily Star! [Carol]

Ten things a blogger may never say

Comments rumble on about my piece in Press Gazette which made the  earth shattering observation that some blogs are rubbish. What strikes me about much of what's said in bloggers' defence when faced with such a contentious charge is the scale of the arrogance confidence of some of these new media fellas. Here's some stuff I reckon some bloggers may never say. It's a joke like, innit. So please don't take it too seriously. I'm a blogger too you know. Note to self: Repeat 100 times, some blogs are great, some blogs are great, some blogs...oh never mind. [Linda]

1. What do you mean, write about something other than me?

2. Yes yes I've checked how to spell it.

3. No really, it's all the same to me if you leave a comment or not.

4. Libel? Yeah, studied it for years, me.

5. Contempt? Ditto.

6. No, I've never read The Guardian. I'm more of a Sport man myself.

7. I think the best headlines are the simplest

8. A publishing contract? Nothing could be further from my mind.

9. Bridget Jones, me? Get away with you. I do have a boyfriend you know.

10. Sorry, am I going on a bit?

Thanks Adrian!

Transcript of BBC Radio WM interview with Adrian Goldberg: 

Adrian:

A local mum has been named as the most exceptional working mum in the country by a national support group for working mums called Mother at Work.

Her name is Carol Garrington from Cheslyn Hay, she has overcome a disability to run a public relations firm as well as being a mother to two young boys.

The 34-year-old was born with a number of medical conditions that made doctors warn her that she would never walk and never have children.  She made the decision to have her left leg amputated below the knee at the age of 12 and faced years of on-going treatment.

Let’s get a word with Carol now. Hi Carol. Blimey that sounds a list of stuff that you had to go through. Were you born with some kind of condition then?

Carol:

No I had a deformity on my left side when I was born that the doctors couldn’t put down to anything in particular, they didn’t have scans in those days so they couldn’t have picked it up any sooner.  It was just a process of elimination really and I had a number of operations to try and find out the cause, but there was no explanation in the end, just one of those things.

Adrian:  And you made the big decision at the age of 12 to have your left leg amputated?

Carol:  That’s right yes

Adrian:

What was that like? Did someone sit down and go through options with you and you came to the idea that that was the best thing?

Carol:

No, it was something that my parents thought would be better for me from an early age but they couldn’t make that decision for me it had to be my decision and by the age of 12 I was off to high school and wanted to be like everyone else and wear the nice skirts and shoes.  It was a cosmetic thing for me at that age more than anything else.  I was being bullied at school as well so for me it was just something I had to do and I didn’t even give it a second thought.

Adrian:  And do you give it a second thought now?

Carol:  I do yes.

Adrian:  I mean do you regret it?

Carol:

I don’t regret it at all no, but I do think back and think what a big decision it was to make at that age but I don’t regret it, I’ve absolutely never looked back.

Adrian:  And you were told that you might not be able to have kids?

Carol: 

That’s right yes, I’ve got a complication with my womb that meant that I wouldn’t be

able to carry children and was told all through my first pregnancy that I could lose it at any stage, so that was quite stressful really but against the odds we got through and now I’ve got two lovely boys that I’m really proud of.

Adrian:

Well they can be proud of their mum as well because so much for your disabilities. It’s more about your abilities that has brought you to national attention. You set up your own PR firm, your own business, not an easy thing for anyone to do at any time.

Carol:

No not at all but I think that the determination that I’ve got and from people telling me from an early age ‘you can’t do this, you can’t do that’ its given me a real fighting spirit to think well if someone tells me I can’t do something I’m absolutely going to prove that I can, so I think its that really that’s got me through so many things.

Adrian:  And having children at the same time, being a working mum, never easy?

Carol:

No it's not. It's very demanding being a mother and there’s lots of challenges to face and the same with running a business as well so the two combined can sometimes be quite stressful but at the same time it is so rewarding.

Adrian:  What does it mean to get this recognition?

Carol: 

Oh it's fantastic and I think it’s a great message to other mothers to prove to everybody really that mothers have a lot of skills that can be transferred into the workplace.  Mothers make fantastic business women they really do because they have so many skills like time management and being able to organise and delegate and cope with stressful situations, they are all things that in the workplace are absolutely essential skills, so I hope it gives a message to other mothers that they can do it, they really can.

Adrian:  When did you actually set up your business?

It was in 2003 and it was with a lady called Linda Jones who is a very close friend.  It was Linda who set the business up and I joined her very shortly afterwards.  She’s got twin girls and the idea behind it was that we wanted a career and something for the long term but we also wanted to spend quality time with our children and this gave us the opportunity to do that, so that’s why we did it.

Adrian:

So you actually created your own job share by creating your own job in your own

company?

Carol:

That’s right yes, and the people that we’ve got working with us now are also mothers and we work as a team.  We look after each others’ children in the holidays, we take it in turns and there’s no pressure on anybody if they want to go to a school assembly or the sports day.  We all understand that that’s a pressure you don’t need, you don’t need to be worrying ‘can I have the time off work?’ and we are all absolutely committed to doing the work when we’re in the office so it works really well.

Adrian:

That’s fantastic Carol and well done, its great that you’ve done what you’ve done and now that you’ve got this recognition for it as well. It's just an inspiration for everybody listening thinking blimey she’s Wonder Woman.  Good luck to you.

That’s Carol Garrington from Cheslyn Hay the most exceptional working mum in the UK according to the national support group Mothers at Work.  I’m sure you’ll know a mum who’s just as exceptional but she’s pretty good isn’t she? [Carol]

How not to do PR

There are so many things that hack journalists off about PR people, that you could be forgiven for thinking we can never do anything right. But if you follow a few simple rules then hopefully you won't go too far wrong. Here's an extract from an article available through our website which gives a taste of how not to do things. These are mainly based on press release "etiquette" if you like as it seems such a bug bear. We are well aware there is much more to PR than press releases. They are all real-life examples of what some misguided saps PR people have got up to in the past:

• Don't phone up a Sunday paper to ask:  "Which day do your health pages come out?" It makes you look stupid.

(Incidentally, Sunday papers generally look for exclusives and won't simply publish your release three days after dailies have carried it)

• Don't send a release unless you have a good idea what kind of features/news the publication carries. You have to be prepared to actually read recent copies if you want to get it right.
• Don't try to be the journalist's best mate on the phone. They are usually busy and haven't got time for that.
• Don't send out completely untargeted press releases – are you sure that Mobile Phone Weekly is really the place for your news of your new training course? (‘It could be’ isn’t good enough!)
• Don't pester with repeat phone calls saying "are you going to use it?" One phone call asking this question is one too many – if the story is good enough, it will get in.
• Don't ask the journalist to dig out a piece they did ages ago to photocopy and send it to you. It's a really annoying and time consuming job and ensures they won't use anything else you send them in case they’re asked to do the same again.
• Don't expect to take up loads of the journalist's time during a face to face meeting unless you honestly think your product or service could provide them with a significant story.
• If you are inviting the press to some sort of launch, be a bit generous and tell them what's on offer. It's a sad fact (but true) that journalists do respond to invites (more after work these days) if there is decent food and a couple of drinks on offer. It won't guarantee you coverage but you’ll be remembered.
• If you are inviting the media to a ‘photocall’ or local event and they tell you they hope to come along, don’t ring up and moan when they don’t – guess what - they have other stuff to do!
• Don’t ever complain that the media ‘isn’t getting behind’ your product/service – that is not their job – that’s to report the news. [Katie]