The Juggling Working Mum: The Silent Killer

Next week, we’re holding a special LIVE webinar for the Devonport Council Festival of Learning all about The Juggling Working Mum: How To End Your Body Burnout. If you haven’t registered yet, go HERE to reserve your spot (it’s completely free as part of this community event). 

We are so incredibly passionate about helping high-achieving parents, especially the mums out there who carry an extra invisible load, end their energy, mood and gut issues - and not just for the short-term, but for good! Our mission has been recognised through many awards, including the Telstra Best of Business Awards 2022, where we were the Tasmanian state winner and National finalist. I’ve had this “article” stored away for awhile now - it’s actually bits and pieces of what made up our award-winning pitch. And I thought with The Juggling Working Mum webinar coming up next week, now would be a great time to share it!

My Mother Juggled It All

In the past, my mother juggled it all. She was a mum of five during the day, and a night-shift nurse at night. The other mums around her thought she was super mum. An amazing mother, housewife and working mum, a woman who had it all together. Yet inside she was falling apart, silently suffering with anxiety and panic attacks that felt like she was going to die.

Fast forward to when I became mum, I juggled it all. I was a mum of two, running a business, doing extra studies, keeping the household going, with a husband who was rarely at home. I looked around at all the other modern mums on social media “doing it all”, living their passions, being a great mum and making an impact outside of their homes, and I felt like I was failing. Like my mum, I was breaking down inside, struggling with anxiety and panic attacks, and many other physical health issues. 

I thought I was alone, but the the thing is: research shows that 1 in 4 working mums in Australia are physically and mentally burned-out, and that working mums are 18% more stressed than other people. My story is a quarter of our working mum’s stories. This statistic is not good enough. 

The Future of Australian Working Mums

At Chris & Filly Functional Medicine, we see a future where all Australian mums can work and mother, without burning out.

To make our vision of ending working mum burnout a reality, we get to the root cause of their burnout, we give them answers to their health issues, we get their spark back, and allow them to shine.

At the end of this article, you will know how working mum burnout prevents equity in women, and what we’re doing to stop it. 

The problem we see is that old programming and cultural norms of mothering and nurturing and home building persists in families, even when a mother is running her own business or working full-time. Research shows that in Australia women do more than men when it comes to housework and caring for the kids - even if both mum and dad are working full-time. 

And that’s a real problem because it not only affects their health, but, as research shows, a quarter of working mums are considering leaving their job or quitting their business in the next year due to stress caused by the conflict between work and caring responsibilities. Privately, many mothers whisper to me that they feel like they’re also screwing up their kids, and their marriages. 

There is a real opportunity to empower mums to take control o`f their health, their happiness and their life…without giving up being a mum or their business or career.

We are on a mission to end working mum burnout…for good!

Health & Family Breakdown

Over the next decade, health issues & family breakdown is going to increase due to working mums trying to do everything. 

Our solution to the working mum burnout problem is to heal body systems, reconnect with highest values, and empower mums to take care of themselves as a priority, so they can juggle the important things, without burning out.

To achieve our vision of ending working mum burnout we expect to continually provide education, motivation, implementation and transformation programs for women nationally, and even globally, over the next 3yrs. Extending beyond that, in the next 5 years we want to partner with other health providers to teach them our ending burnout method, and change the face of the health industry.

The Problem With The Current Health Industry

A problem we see in the health industry is that change doesn’t last. At the very centre, our business is designed to make meaningful change in the lives of our clients - that last. Our viability hinges on transformation.

So many burned-out, working mums come to us after trying to resolve their health issues with medication, or natural supplements, or diets, or even with meditation and breathwork. Yet their health issues still persist, and continue to affect their lives. 

I saw this personally with myself. I saw GP’s and naturopaths and energy healers and osteopaths and physios, and tried all the diets out there to heal my body. And while some treatments helped, my body burnout never resolved. And that was because the root cause of my burnout, like many other working mums, was not addressed - and that is trying to do everything for everyone, stretching myself thin, like a rubber band that was about to snap, and not filling my cup up first. And these root cause issues are steeped in cultural gender programming, and in not honouring myself first and foremost as a woman and human being. 

Our business model addresses all the root causes, body, mind and environment, so that we are able to untangle all the sticky root causes that other medical specialists and even natural practitioners rarely address.

Because of this, our clients get far better results and transformations. They not only see results in their health issues, but also in their careers, family and in life. And it sets them up for success long-term.

We want to touch many high-achieving mums, and in order to do this, we have created a holistic program model which allows us to work with many clients, in both a 1:1 and group coaching environment, and within an online program, so that we aren’t limited to trading time for money. We can work with more mums, we can help them in a greater capacity, and in a way that results in a transformation, and at a more affordable rate for them.

Success Stories

We see a nation where mums can work and mother, without burning-out.

Putting aside the awards and the media features and the partnerships we’ve created (which are all wonderful and great examples of success), our biggest successes are our clients, and the transformations they are experiencing in their health, motherhood, work and life.

Lara came to use feeling like she was on a never-ending merry-go-round. She was struggling with fatigue, sugar-cravings, constipation, weight gain. She was feeling sluggish and demotivated, and she was doing everything for everyone else, leaving herself to last. 

Lara works in a leadership role in the Tasmanian State Government. She was feeling torn and overwhelmed with the pressures of her job - and a lot of guilt and shame around her sub-par performance as a mother. 

We helped Lara heal her body systems, gain control over her nutrition, do mindset work around aligning her values with her priorities, and gave her the confidence to change up her work schedule so she could be a better mum and wife. Lara did all this, and was feeling so fantastic, that with her extra energy and mental space, she was able to run for State Parliament last year. 

That is an example of success!

Change One Mum and We Change Generations

We see a nation where mums can work and mother, without burning-out.

How significant is the equity we create for our women? It is everything! 

Our client Susie is a good example of this. Susie owns a busy fitness studio in Queensland. She came to us suffering with fibromyalgia, pain, exhaustion, debilitating gut issues, hormonal imbalances, and her mental health was also suffering. Her life was disorganised, and she was doing everything for her family, while also trying to run her business. During the COVID pandemic, Susie was at the point of throwing it all in. She’d lost passion in her business, she was exhausted and deflated, and she had shut down from her husband and kids.

Susie was in a dark place. She desperately needed healing of the body, mind and environment. We helped Susie uncover and fix hidden imbalances in her body. We helped her find her motivation, her spark again. We helped her gain control over her time. We helped her hone in on her professional purpose. We helped her to step outside of motherhood martyrdom, and outsource and delegate household chores to her family members and hired help. Susie has found more love for herself, and more love for her family. Her passion for her business has lit up again. She’s making a lifestyle for herself that doesn’t lead to burnout, but rather thriving.

Susie’s story is not uncommon. It was my story. It is many other client’s stories. And it is the story of at least a quarter of Australia’s working mum population. 

The work we do is not just significant. And it’s not just life-changing. It’s literally life-saving.

And our impact goes further than Australia. For with every mum we help, we give a portion of our fees to girls in Cambodia, so they can stay in school and out of sex-brothels, through our partnership with child protection organisaiton Free To Shine. That is life-saving.

We see a world where mums can work and mother, without burning-out. At the end of the day, we empower our mums to be their own healer, by teaching them how. And that’s going to have far-reaching effects on her family, her community, and her nation.

Change one mum, and we change a country.

Change one mum, and we change generations.

P.s. If you want to join our movement and become this kind of high-achieving mum, book in for a free LIVE webinar on Tue 20 Sept at 7pm. If you can’t make it live, all registrants will have access to the recording :)

Filipa Bellette is Co-Founder of Chris & Filly Functional Medicine. She is an accredited Clinical Nutritionist & Functional Medicine Practitioner. She is also a Ph.D. thought-leader, award-winning writer, and regularly published as a guest blogger & in the media. Together with her husband Chris Bellette, Filipa has worked with over 2,000+ busy, burnout clients in the last 10+ years, and specialises in producing healthy, balanced, and happy Mums & Dads...or as she calls it, a Power Parent! Filipa’s own passion for producing high-performance Power Parents came from her own personal experience of Mummy Burnout, after having babies and juggling the demands of business, family, and her failing health.