I was an outcast in the office when I became a mum

I have heard numerous reports from stay-at-home mums that they’re treated like pariahs in the playground.

They're apparently made to feel like they’re incapable of holding an intelligent conversation or contributing in any real way to a ‘worthy’ discussion because the chose to stay at home and raise their children.

I can sympathise wholeheartedly with this plight despite being a card-carrying Working Mum.

I know, I know. What the hell would I know about this? In some people's eyes, I'm the enemy. Im the exact person who tries to make them feel inferior because of their choice, so what am I doing on my soapbox?

Let me tell you, the reason I feel their irritation so acutely is because I was dealt the same blow and faced the same treatment when I returned to the workforce after giving birth to both my babies.

It seems like I had only just gotten back on an even keel and made to feel like I knew what I was doing when hey presto, I was pregnant again and back to square one.

It wasn’t anything you could describe as harassment or bullying, but it was subtle remarks and insensitive comments which I should be able to shrug off, but why should I have to?

Remarks that suggested the bags under my eyes were more to do with night feeds than all-nighters I pulled in the office became commonplace.

Comments that implied I wouldn’t be capable of giving 100% during a presentation because I was concerned about missing my daughter’s dress rehearsal or dentist appointment became the norm.

I work in a high-stress, male-oriented arena, so bursting into tears at the slightest wisecrack would not only make me look weak in my colleagues eyes, but also compound the stereotype they have of ‘emotional’ women.

And I’m damned if I’m giving them the satisfaction.

It appears my male colleagues need a little lesson in female physiology because as far as I could see, they were under the assumption that once an infant left a woman’s body, its presence was replaced with a lump of suet.

And positioned a little further up.

Between the ears if I’m being specific.

They treated me like I’d had a lobotomy, not a baby, for about 12 months after I delivered my daughter.

The same happened when I delivered her younger brother.

If I’m honest, I thought the fact I had given birth to a boy, one of them, they may go a little easier on me, but no dice.

Being made to feel like my suggestions would fall on deaf ears simply because I spent time with little people who depended on me and completed me irked me for a while, but shouting about it wasn’t going to help.

The proof is in the pudding, so I soldiered on, produced the same results I did before I became a mama and silenced my critics.

Scorn us? They should be applauding us.

Women are capable of retaining all the information we need to make us worthy and irreplaceable in the workplace, while also acquiring in a whole host of new knowledge which make us worthy and irreplaceable in the home.

Working mums or stay-at-home mums- we’re incredible.