I Don’t Know If I Want My Career Anymore After Becoming a Mother
You can be good at your job and still wonder if you want the career you once worked so hard for.
I think this is one of the more confusing questions that can appear after becoming a mother.
You may have spent years building your career. You gained experience, took on more responsibility, perhaps moved countries for opportunities and created a professional identity you were proud of.
And then life changed.
The career itself may not have become worse. You may even genuinely like your job.
But you’re no longer sure you want the same things from it.
Motherhood can change what success means to you
Becoming a mother can change more than your schedule.
It can change how you think about time, ambition, responsibility and what makes a good life.
That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve become less ambitious.
Maybe your ambition has changed too.
What felt important five years ago may no longer have the same weight. At the same time, letting go of an old definition of success can feel surprisingly difficult - especially when you worked hard to reach it.
You don’t need to make a dramatic decision immediately
When something no longer feels quite right, it’s easy to jump straight to solutions:
Should I change jobs? Reduce my hours? Start something new? Stay where I am?
But sometimes the more useful question comes before all of those:
What do I actually want from my life now?
Not what you wanted before motherhood. Not what your employer expects. Not what looks successful from the outside.
What matters to you now?
Start with the life, not the job title
Career questions rarely exist in isolation.
They are connected to the kind of days you want to have, how you want to spend your time, your family, your financial needs, where you live and who you are becoming.
This can be even more complex when you live abroad, where questions about career, family and belonging often overlap.
You don’t necessarily need to throw away the career you built.
But you are allowed to ask whether it still fits the person you are today.
If you’re living abroad and find yourself asking these kinds of questions, this is exactly the kind of transition I work with in my 1:1 coaching.
About Nina Salig
Nina Salig is a Professional Life Coach based in Madrid, supporting professional women living abroad through questions around identity, career and life transitions.
