Welcome to episode three of Mother, Creator, where I share conversations about creativity in motherhood and all the mess, joy and complexity that can bring.
In this episode, I’m chatting with accountant Rachel Pearson about letting kids explore their own creativity, creative thinking in a non-creative job, and making your way back to yourself after having children.
Find Rachel on Instagram @account_ant_uk and me on Instagram at @zoepickburn.
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TRANSCRIPT STARTS HERE
Rachel: [00:00:00] You can't dim it really, because if you've got a want to do that kind of thing then you'll always come back around to it.
Zoe: Hi, this is Mother Creator, conversations about creativity in motherhood and all the mess and joy and complexity that can bring. I'm Zoe and I'm a writer and today I'm in conversation with Rachel Pearson.
Hi Rachel.
would you like to start by introducing yourself, what you do, what your creative practice looks like, um, and what season of motherhood you're in.
Rachel: I'm Rachel and I am the director of Account-Ant Yorkshire Limited, which is an accountant and bookkeeping practice based in, well West Yorkshire. So we help all sorts of clients from all sorts of walks of life in terms of the [00:01:00] creative people.
I have, jewelers, hairdressers that do like funky stuff. Nail techs, that's quite creative. Garment people, all sorts of things.
When you think of accountants, you don't really think of creative. And if you do, then you think probably dodgy. But that is not the case.
I quite like being creative in the thinking. So it's more like if someone gives me like a, their stuff, their accounts. I don't go bang, bang, bang, job done. It's more like bang, bang, bang. Have a look at the results. What can we think about it? What can we do about it? What kind of ideas can be generated from that?
So yeah, that's pretty much the creative bit of the job. As a person now, like I do sewing, embroidery, not very good at knitting,
Zoe: and do you want to just remind [00:02:00] us what kind of season of motherhood you're in? What kids do you have?
Rachel: So I only have the one. and he is amazing, beautiful person. He is going to be six soon. So we're quite far on in it really kind of like into primary school, into the summer holiday juggle, that kind of thing.
Zoe: And can you tell me whether and how becoming a mother changed your creativity and the creative things that you do?
Rachel: Yeah, so it kind of put a pause on a lot of the creativity. So before I became a mother, I did all sorts of things, like making dolls, making presents, like toys for him and things, and doing my own clothes, and going to embroidery class, and it kind of took a pause because of that tiredness that you feel when you've got a tiny human.
that you have to look after. There's, there's no sleep for a [00:03:00] while there, is there? So it kind of took a pause but I am getting back into it pretty much now. It has taken me that long with a few health issues and stuff as well thrown in.
Zoe: I'm still quite in the throes of it, I've got a fresh two year old. I'm still in the, in the no sleep club. so it's good to hear that it sort of comes back around a little bit.
Rachel: You can't dim it really, because if you've got a want to do that kind of thing then you'll always come back around to it.
Zoe: Yeah, absolutely. And then can you tell me what creating looks like in this, in your current season of motherhood, how you maintain it and what supports your ability to create kind of on a practical level?
Rachel: Honestly, it's those little pockets of time, when he's doing something else, or bedtime. Those are basically the only times I get to do anything for myself. And what it looks like for me is doing a bit of [00:04:00] embroidery because you don't actually have to think, well I don't have to think too hard about it.
So I'm actually just finishing, I was doing a season, for the four seasons and cute little embroidery thing that I still haven't finished and I started before he was born. So I'm on to the last one now.
Zoe: Yeah, that sounds quite familiar projects stretching out and taking longer than they ever ever used to.
Rachel: Yeah, like we could just fire through something in a couple of weekends, maybe.
Zoe: And again, using that sort of pockets of time, that sounds quite familiar for a lot of the mothers that I speak to. Often it's about being able to have things that you can pick up and put down a lot easier. I don't know about you, but I used to have projects that you'd have to get really, really involved in, and now you just can't do that.
Rachel: Yeah, yeah, like I used to make dresses and things, and that is just too far beyond me at the moment. When he's a little bit older and isn't asking so many questions all the time, [00:05:00] then yeah, I'll have the brain space for that again.
Zoe: Yeah, a lot of it feels like it's about that brain space, brain capacity. Especially if you're, you know, I know that a lot of the people I speak to are self-employed as well, that just adds another level to it.
Rachel: Because that can take some of the capacity you have. I find that I'm being more creative in the things that I post related to business. You know, more things that entertain me because I just didn't want to do boring.
Zoe: . I've heard that a lot as well, that people are, you know, that you're able to channel that creativity into kind of digital formats that help within your business or it's kind of that doubling up a little bit, isn't it?
Rachel: Yeah. You got to get your kicks somewhere.
Zoe: And then the third question that I like to go over is how you use creative thinking and creativity in your mothering and in your parenting, less about maybe getting their paints out and more about the creative decisions that you make as [00:06:00] a parent.
Rachel: Yeah, so creative decisions it's the kind of the arrangements that you have to do like fitting everything in. It's the creative making space thing for me, like for instance, today is an election day. So the school is shut, but we have to do lessons. But we also want to do something fun. So, we've completed some of the lessons already.
So we can have a bit of fun time.
And also, not saying, Here you go, here's something for you to do. Just seeing how he, picks it up or not channeling him in any way. Like you said, picking up the paints. If he does pick up the paints, it's not like, oh, draw a nice picture of a house. It's just do whatever you want.
And what he comes out with is very interesting.
Zoe: Yeah. It's good to let them explore things themselves and let them find their own creativity, I guess, in a way.
So those are my three questions. I don't know if you've got anything else that you wanted to [00:07:00] talk about, about creativity and motherhood and parenting and all that stuff.
Rachel: Yeah, I used to love all that stuff and it's just, it gets hard for a bit and then you make your way back.
Zoe: I think that's such a shared experience between mothers a lot of the time that You do sort of lose your way a little bit, with creativity and with other stuff as well. Before finding your way back to yourself , and it feels like I'm two years in. I'm only just starting to find my way back to myself and my creativity.
Rachel: You're doing well for two years, to be fair. I'm nearly six years in and it's taken a while, but I suppose it depends on your drives and the other things that are going on as well.
Zoe: Yeah, I think I'm quite lucky. The creative stuff that I do is writing and it's very, very easy to just pick up a bit of paper and a pen or even when she was first born I used to do it like in my notes app on my phone. So I didn't have to get any equipment out or get [00:08:00] any, you know, Needles out.
Rachel: I used to do that like three o'clock in the morning because my husband and I used to film weddings. So I was doing like all the social media stuff and connecting with people and posting the latest video, et cetera, at three o'clock in the morning.
Zoe: Yeah, but again, it's that finding the pockets of time. It all comes back to finding those, seeking out those little bits of time to do things and to use that creativity.
It's been really, really lovely to talk to you.
Rachel: Great to speak to you as well Zoe.
Zoe: Thanks for listening to Mother Creator. You can find me on Instagram at Zoe Pickburn. Please subscribe to the podcast on Substack, it's free and if you're enjoying the pod, please share it with your friends. It makes a massive difference.
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