My story
My life wasn't bad. I simply stopped pretending it was the only version available.
I'm Natalie. A mum, wife and woman in her mid-thirties who realised that being driven did not mean I had to keep building a career I no longer wanted.
For years, success looked like becoming indispensable at work. Then motherhood changed the question. I stopped asking how far I could climb and started asking what the climb was costing my family.
School finishes before the workday. My husband works twelve-hour shifts. Family time can become whatever is left after two employers have taken their share. Even working from home can leave you present in the house but absent from the moment.
“I still want to make a lot of money. I just no longer want every dollar attached to another hour away from the people I love.”
Then I was made redundant on my thirty-sixth birthday after ten years. A ten-minute call ended the version of security I had spent a decade building. It clarified something I can never unlearn: your job can be valuable, but it should not be the only place your family's options live.
I began building a business alongside work and family. Not as an impulsive escape, and not because employment is the enemy. I wanted another income model, a stronger relationship with my health, and the ability to make decisions without every part of our life being organised around work rosters and approved leave.
The South Coast Mum is where those parts meet: work, money, motherhood, water, wellness and the decision to build a life with more choice.