Lash technician, Tania Kalila, knows all too well the constant juggle of work and raising kids.
Even when she was giving birth to her son, Giovanni, now seven months, she was texting her clients, asking them to reschedule appointments.
But Tania says ultimately she’s lucky: she’s in a career that works around childcare. She has her own studio, so can take Giovanni with her, and she is able to work remotely too, training up other aspiring beauticians online.
‘It’s a job that means I’m able to balance my time between my baby and my business,’ Tania tells Metro.
And so, eager to help other mums find balance, earlier this month, the 24-year-old advertised a free workshop, offering to teach other women how to do eyelash services, such as extensions and lifts.
She specifically offered the course to mothers with children under five, and even reached out to brands for support. She ended up with products donated by London Lash Pro, The Lash Hause, and Fangyal.
Tania, 24, had space for just 10 people, but after posting on Instagram, she was overwhelmed with responses.
More than 150 mums reached out to take part — and Tania had to double the size of her class, made possible with the support of the brands who had backed her.
For Tania, it was a stark reminder that flexible working options are limited for mothers.
According to one 2023 study from the Fawcett Society, one in 10 working mums are forced to quit their jobs owing to childcare pressures, while two-fifths have turned down a promotion because of these childcare pressures. Plus, 85% struggle to find a job that can accommodate their needs.
And, while employers are obliged to consider all requests to work flexibly ‘in a reasonable manner’ and without discrimination, that doesn’t mean that every request is honoured.
As one 2021 survey from the Trade Union Congress found, half of working mums aren’t granted the flexible conditions they’ve asked for, while 86% who were allowed to work flexibly said that they faced both discrimination and felt disadvantaged at work as a result.
Elsewhere, statistics from Open Study College found that a third (33%) of women actually changed careers after having children.
‘You’re not the same person returning to work’
Being self-employed, Tania didn’t take a proper maternity leave, saying she was pretty much ‘straight back to it’ after having Giovanni in June 2025.
But she adds that, without her business, she has no idea how she’d have made it through pregnancy, birth and now motherhood, financially.
‘The thing about the beauty industry is that you don’t have to schedule it as a Monday to Friday thing. You’re able to pick the days you work, which is what’s so beautiful about it,’ she explains.
Giovanni was a month early, arriving only five days after her baby shower. For 12 days, he was in the neonatal intensive care unit being treated for an infection.
‘I was able to do some [work] bits online a day or two afterwards, and then fully going back to work took a couple of months,’ she recalls. Now, she works every weekend, between 11am and 4pm, and dedicates the rest of her time to childcare.
She hoped that by offering training other women might be able to enjoy a similar work-life balance that her business has given her. ‘I felt really hopeful that this might be the start of something,’ she says.
When she read through each of the 150 applications, Tania says she couldn’t help but feel moved by the emotion that had gone into them.
She’d asked each mother to specify why they wanted to take part in the lash course, a question that had prompted impassioned responses. Some of them had been made redundant; others were single mothers or had recently left challenging household dynamics.
‘So many said they don’t come across workshops like mine. I thought: “if I’m one person out of how many in the world, and they’ve never seen this before.” It made me feel sad.’
Tania allowed the women attending to bring their babies to the space that she hired in Barking, London, to mitigate any childcare costs, setting up the room so that the mums could physically see them during the training, and she made sure there was a soft play area.
She also created a WhatsApp group for the women, with the intention of building a support network.
‘I wanted a sense of community. It’s extremely difficult to do anything on your own, so hopefully, them leaning on each other can help them in their journey,’ she says.
‘You never know who you might work with in the future, so I hope that I’ve built some really nice connections there.’
Offering up advice for other new mums looking to start their own business, Tania emphasises the importance of asking for help, and practising self-care.
She says: ‘You’re not the same person returning to work as if you were sick. You gave birth, and you went through that physical trauma.
‘Don’t rush anything, and don’t compare yourself to anyone’s journey. Just make sure you’re prioritising yourself and your baby.
‘Business can grow, but if you try to rush everything from the start, and you kind of lose that love for it, having passion with definitely help you in business.’
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