How I'm Taking Maternity Leave as a Freelance Artist

Maternity leave has been on my mind since we found out we were expecting in April of 2023. Actually way before that, since my journey to motherhood has been a long one. I always knew I wanted children, but I didn’t know how that would work as a freelancer. I still don’t know what my new mom schedule will look like. However, I’ve thought a lot about how I would take maternity leave.

I’ve realized the key to maternity leave is semi-passive income. I use the word “semi-passive” because I don’t believe any income is truly passive. By semi-passive, I mean making money off content I’ve already created.

This was one of my major drivers behind creating The Green Paint Society. It’s a place where I can pre-schedule content before our baby even arrives. Right now, I have all my GPS content scheduled through March. I even typed my recent blog posts months ago (like this one you’re reading now). In preparation for maternity leave, I’ve spent years implementing other sources of semi-passive income, such as setting up Amazon Affiliate links on my blog and adding guides for purchase to my website.

The hardest part is stepping away from non-passive ventures, like my print shop. I ran my print shop almost until the baby came with the help of my husband Ryan. At this point, I’m not sure when it will reopen. Since this post is pre-scheduled, it may already be back open. My plan is to ease into it when I’m ready by upping my expected shipping times. I might even raise my prices to minimize how many orders come in. And I’ve put a pause on commercial illustration projects in order to clear my schedule. It wasn’t easy saying no to new opportunities, but I realized how difficult it would be to have deadlines with a new baby. I’ll be losing money by shutting down these ventures, but that’s okay. The semi-passive income I’ve set up means I’m still making some money while I’m out, and that’s my main goal.

To take maternity leave as a freelancer, preparation is key. Being able to step away from my work took a lot of planning, whether it was setting up new income streams or planning to step away from existing ones. As I mentioned, all the new content on my website lately was pre-scheduled by me. That means I had to set aside time to type articles and schedule posts through March.

Despite all the preparation, I knew it was important to give myself maternity leave just like 9-5 employees get from their companies. Even though their leaves are usually paid, this is still our first baby and I realize it’s a huge adjustment. I don’t want to worry about work while easing into motherhood. Ryan is taking 8 weeks of paternity leave too, so it will be nice to enjoy this time off as a family.

As I said, I don’t know what mom life as a freelancer will look like, but I imagine I’ll be working in the same way I did to prepare for maternity leave. After March, I’ll probably be pre-scheduling content while baby is sleeping. Maybe, I’ll be running my print shop in the evenings while Ryan is on dad duty. The nice thing about being a freelancer is that, while I still have to work, I get to decide when and how I do it. I’ll be keeping you all posted on how my career evolves with a new baby.

Nicole Cicak