Mothers, Wives, MDRT members | A Celebration of Three Supermoms

 

Finding career development beyond motherhood

Sharon and Janis

As a mother of 2, Sharon Kua understood the importance of setting aside time for her two daughters. For 3 years, during her girls’ formative years, the family had moved overseas. She stayed home with her children while her husband worked for the Singapore Air Force.

So when her oldest daughter was about to transition into secondary school two years ago, Sharon started re-considering her career options. “I started to think about stopping work to fully take care of them, as they move on to their teenage years,” Sharon told ZUU online candidly. “I considered stopping work, or getting a part time or freelance job, just to have more flexibility in my working arrangement.”

On a positive note, she was able to free up more time to attend school events that her children really wanted her to attend, like competitions, and prize giving ceremonies. “Previously, if we thought it was not important, we wouldn’t take leave to attend the event, but now I make it a point to be present for them, even if it seems unimportant from our point of view.”

On hindsight, Sharon realized that the job that was meant for her to take a step back, wound up nudging her two steps forward on her career instead. “You do have to sacrifice more of your time for this career, but because my kids are older and more independent now, I can be more at ease to do what I want and to step out of my comfort zone.”

Working hard, Mothering harder

Jasmine with Qian Xiu [left], & Yue Feng [centre]

“The beauty of working as a financial planner is that I can plan my time, so that I can send my daughter and son to school and schedule my appointments around that,” explains Jasmine. For the most part, she chooses to meet with her clients on weekdays after they have knocked off work. Weekend appointments are kept to a minimum unless it is absolutely necessary.

Building a business, not just a career

Kia Leng with Yi Xuan

Indeed, the self-professed workaholic found the flexible work arrangement particularly helpful when pregnancy complications nearly scuppered her personal target of qualifying for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT). “I had really bad morning sickness. For the first 3 months, I couldn’t work. I could only come into work for 2 days a week, and the rest of the time, I stayed at home throwing up. I would hold a plastic bag everywhere I went.”

Most importantly, she had an even greater understanding of her own mother, who now spends her days caring for Kia Leng’s 8 month old daughter. To celebrate the MDRT achievement and fulfill her mother’s lifelong dream, Kia Leng brought her parents, her two brothers and her family for a holiday to Taiwan, so her mother could finally try all the snacks that she’d seen so much about on television shows.

School of hard knocks

Support of the company

Advice to other mothers

Savouring the fruits of their labour

Source: Manulife FA Facebook

This article first appeared on ZUUOnline.sg – https://zuuonline.sg/money/insurance/mothers-wives-mdrt-members-a-celebration-of-three-supermoms/

It also subsequently appeared on Yahoo Finance – https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/mothers-wives-mdrt-members-celebration-090000418.html.