Small Business: Parental leave - Jane Time, Gateway Kids

James and Jane Time, owners of Gateway Kids.

This week, Small Business editor Caitlyn Sykes interviews business owners about how they manage their parental leave.

In 2013, Jane Time and her husband James established Gateway Kids, which provides morning and after-school care and holiday programmes for children at two Wellington-based sites. Their fourth and youngest child, Chase, was born in July 2014.

Your youngest child was born just over a year ago. What did you do before his birth to prepare for taking parental leave from the business?

I spent a month training up one of our managers to take over the running of our programme at our Naenae site, which was a role I was doing before having Chase.

What period of parental leave did you take when Chase was born, and what factors influenced how long you took?

I took a month off. That was based on me wanting to be solely available for my newborn, because I was also breastfeeding and needing time for my body to heal and adjust. My husband took two weeks off as well, and he did a lot of the running around that was needed for our other three kids and to support me in my healing process. I also had my mum come from Brisbane, who stayed for a month to help out where needed. I think the first month with your newborn is a crucial time for both mum and baby and it's always important to be surrounded by family and have a good support system in place.

Did you access any paid parental leave entitlements?

No I didn't. We were just heading into our second year with the business and I didn't really have any knowledge of what might be available to business owners, or the time to search. I'm prepared for our staff when it comes to parental leave, but as an owner I wasn't sure what was available.

How did you transition to working back in the business?

I didn't ever actually completely stop working because there was still the administration side of the business that I needed to manage throughout. I always did that when I wasn't busy with Chase, or in the evenings when all the kids were in bed.

My role has changed somewhat in the business since I've had Chase, and I'm no longer managing the Naenae site. That's freed me up to focus more on overseeing the running of the business overall, as well as growing it by networking and searching for new initiatives that we can involve our kids in. I'm also in the planning stages of establishing our charitable trust, Gateway Corporate Youth, which will be working with at-risk kids.

One thing I had to do early on, when Chase was just a few weeks old, was have a good sit down with my husband to sort out our priorities. My husband has a passion for rugby and had a lot of commitments with that, and was already really busy with work and catering to our three older kids. It took me two weeks to get up the courage to talk to him about prioritising his commitments and whether he could think about giving rugby a break; I didn't want to be a wife that stops her husband from doing what he loves, but it was about making him understand we needed to find a new balance in our family with our sport and business commitments. That's still a work in progress, but it's a lot better now.

A year or so on from Chase's arrival, are you working part time or full time?

My first priority is my son, so he is with me full time. But I do also work full time hours in the business, balancing that in between what my son needs. In the evening when all the kids are down is when I will get the bulk of my work done, which means I work till the wee hours of the morning. A lot of the agencies and organisations I work alongside have been a great support for me in building Gateway Kids, so they're also really understanding when I have to take my son along with me to meetings. And if I know that the meeting will take too long, then I'll find child care for him, which is normally with family.

What advice would you have for another business owner preparing to take a period of parental leave from their operation?

• Have all your processes in place and the right person or people trained up to manage the business while you're away. Believe in what your staff are capable of doing so that you have peace of mind when you're on parental leave.

• Make sure you take enough time out for yourself before baby arrives and enough time after labour to spend with your newborn and family. You need that time to refocus on the new dynamics of your family and to prepare for when you get back into the swing of things again at work.