Returning to school after a long break can be hard for anyone, but it was especially hard for French teacher Melody Mozley, who recently returned from a seven week hiatus following the birth of her first son, Luke Moses Mozley.

“My maternity leave was great, it went by very fast,” Mozley said. “I took six weeks, but then I had an extra week because of Thanksgiving, so it was a seven week maternity leave total.”

Although the six week break does not seem like much time, it is the average time women take off from work.

“Here everyone seems to just take the minimum of six weeks, because, unless you work for a private corporation, you don’t get paid for maternity leave,” Mozley said. “So the tendency is for women to take their six weeks, to be minimally deducted from their pay so they can get back to work.”

During the day, Mozley recruited a nanny to care for her son while she made the transition back to work.

“It was hard, but I got really great childcare,” Mozley said. “It is very close to the school, so if I need to leave if there is ever a problem, it’s close enough to do that very quickly. They take really good care of him, and he had a really good experience yesterday, so far so good.”

Leaving her second child after less than two months to return to work would have been a difficult task without the help her husband.

“It would have (been hard), so I avoided that,” Mozley said. “What we have decided to do is my husband brings him to his nanny, because if I had to bring him to his nanny it would probably be really hard for me to walk away. So, because he does that in the morning, he takes that burden off of me, and then I’m the one who picks him up, so it makes it a lot easier.”