How Does Motherhood Impact Your Creativity? It’s Complicated

I did not expect to find myself dancing for a grandmother called Sharon in an empty theater last week. But I’m very glad I did it.

You see, I was taking part in something called Parents Power Hour. It was held at an arts center near my house—the same place, coincidentally, where I once took part in a youth theater production about the Windrush (I played a lady at a bus stop) and where, just a cool 30 years later, I watched my son dance to “Jump Around” by House of Pain in a pair of red striped leggings. Ah, time.

If I’m honest, before I walked into the room, I was expecting Parents Power Hour to be a bit harem pants and crystals. A bit chakras and apple puree pouches. Maybe one shy dad with a tote bag. Because, despite being a parent, and despite working for more than two decades in that laughable crapshoot we call “the creative industries,” I’m still somehow a bit wary about things that are explicitly for “creative people” or, for that matter, parents. Not quite sure I belong. Not convinced I can hold my own.

And yet I also know that, after pushing out three books in as many years, and having just entered the new era of having a school-aged child, my sense of creativity is in flux. I actually found having a child was an enormous boost to my creative energy. All those naysayers and worrying folk who had warned me that motherhood would “end my career” seemed to have got it wrong. Yes, the childcare was eye-wateringly expensive, and yes, I frequently got waylaid by an exploding orifice or demand to crawl around on the floor. But, to a far greater extent, I discovered a driving sense of purpose. My time had value it had never had before, because the slivers of it spent not looking after an infant were so precious. I would sit, blinking in the dark, writing at my computer for two hours without even stopping to pee, because I knew it was the only chance I had. Counterintuitively, I believe it can be good, as a creative person, to have less time, because it motivates you to focus, act quickly, and not overthink your decisions.

Also, making things—whether that’s books, paintings, performances, or poetry—will help you reclaim the bits of your identity not reached by mushy pasta and cleaning toothpaste off the sink.