Maternity leave as an opportunity: why I decided to learn a foreign language after five years
When I went on maternity leave, I had one quiet expectation.
That from this "vacation"—which in the Czech Republic is actually quite long—I would come out richer in some way.
Not just about children.
But also about something of my own.
First child: rhythm, peace, and coffee in silence
With my first son, this kind of came true for a moment.
When everything settled down, I had a beautiful routine—he slept twice a day.
And I suddenly had something that I can appreciate much more today than back then: time.
I cleaned a bit, prepared something for lunch, sat down with coffee.
And sometimes I even managed to read or write something.
It was a special period. On one hand, gentle solitude. On the other hand, structure and space to be with myself for a moment.
Second child: end of plans
Then the second son arrived.
One and a half years after the first.
And shortly after that, the chaos.
And everything changed.
Time for myself disappeared. The predictable routine disappeared. Any certainty that I would fill myself up disappeared.
I functioned from day to day. Based on what was needed at the moment.
A quiet voice that never disappeared
Yet, there was always one quiet voice:
"Someday I'll return to this."
To writing. To learning. To something that's just mine.
Five years on maternity leave. Three sons. And a surprise.
Today it's been five years.
And I have three sons.
It might seem that there's really no space or time to think about it.
And yet... paradoxically, I'm starting to make it happen now.
Not because there's more time. But because I realize that waiting for ideal conditions makes no sense.
The most important question: where to start
For a long time, I didn't know what to do.
Over the years, many needs have accumulated:
learn something.
create something.
move forward somewhere.
get a piece of myself back.
But when there's too much, a person can't do anything.
Turning point: a webinar that turned my head around
Then I watched a webinar by psychologist Dalibor Ĺ pok:
How to learn foreign languages (and how definitely not to learn them)
And suddenly it all started to make sense.
Honestly—I never would have thought to learn a foreign language on maternity leave.
I was much more drawn to ethology or philosophy.
But language has one big advantage: it's practical, transferable, and can be learned in small steps.
Why language
Suddenly I realized:
This is exactly something I can take away from maternity leave.
Not as a big project. But as an inconspicuous, daily change.
At the same time, I exercise my brain, do something for myself, and don't need perfect time or peace.
How it works in reality
I don't study for an hour every day in silence.
I learn from podcasts with translations, from series with subtitles, from old textbooks from Vinted.
Between what the children are building, eating, sleeping—or not sleeping.
And sometimes just for a few minutes.
But even that adds up.
Small bonus
And the best part is that the language I chose is taught online by my high school classmate.
She also has children.
Well, "only" two sons.
And suddenly, it all makes sense in an even broader way.
Maybe it's not about time
Maybe it's not about how much time we have.
Maybe it's about starting small, not waiting for ideal conditions, and allowing ourselves to do something that isn't necessary—but is ours.