Day in the Life: Artist Mama Charlotte Lane Feels All the Guilt

What does your daily routine look like, mamas? Tell us, we want to know!

In the series “A Day in the Life“, mamas submit snapshots of regular moments that occur throughout their daily routine. The idea is to show the wide variety of lives mamas lead in Singapore, whether you’re in the office, staying at home, or something in between.

Fine artist Charlotte Lane of Charlotte Elizabeth Fine Art moved to Singapore last September with a partner and toddler in tow (back home in London she was a scenic artist for the theatre, how cool is that?!). After the settling in period, she’s now figuring out how to juggle mummy life (her daughter, Persephone, is 2) with the work of being an artist. Here she recaps a typical day of trying to get stuff done, from mummy guilt to figuring how out how to cook a nutritious meal from broccoli and an onion (hehe). You can meet the hilarious Charlotte in person and check out her work in March at the spring edition of Boutiques; stay tuned for more deets, mamas!

If you’d like to be featured in this series, mama, drop us a line at [email protected] with “Day in the Life” in the subject line!

Read more Day in the Life stories here:
Run Coach Holly Kuzmiak-Ngiam
Rhonda Wong of OhMyHome
Orthodontist & Travel Writer Dr Sylvia Tan

The effective ‘Mamamamamaama where you gone?’ alarm clock that goes off just before 7am everyday jolts my other half out and me of bed and straight into the morning routine. Breakfast is the only meal during the week when we’re able to eat together so I attempt to enforce the pleasant notion of a civilised family breakfast.

Invariably I end up running around slightly manically finding lost shoes, applying mascara, loading the washing machine, packing the bag, emailing the nursery and so on, while the other half sips coffee and pokes Weetabix into the offspring.

The other half has abandoned us for gainful employment so our next task is to get offspring to nursery. Due to a quite serious allergy to organised exercise, I consider walking to and from nursery my main workout. Arrive 25 minutes later at hill top nursery panting, sweating and hoping not to bump into any of the glamorous mummies. Kiss the offspring goodbye with a ‘Love you darling please try and be kind and share with the other children’ while she looks at me with barely concealed amusement and toddles off tossing ‘Go ‘way mama I play now’ over her shoulder.

Parenting to me consists mainly of a daily battle of guilt. Guilt, for not working enough and not being the empowered female role model I want my daughter to see. Guilt, that I’m working too much and not being the nurturing earth mother it’s my duty to be. Offspring is only at nursery three days a week so I’m driven by guilt to use this time as productively as possible. I don my hugely unflattering paint overalls and launch straight in. Working with paint is when I temporarily feel like the woman I used to be before I was a mama.

I usually get so engrossed in what I’m doing I forget to eat. If I do remember, I’d like to tell you I throw together a nutritious colourful salad of home sprouted alfalfa and chia seed. However, what I usually do is eat crisps or the snacks I’ve bought primarily for bribing the offspring. I do put the crisps in a bowl, though. That makes it FANCY.

The hours disappear in the blink of an eye. I stand back and assess the day’s work before wheezing up the hill to collect the offspring. Having recently moved to Singapore I’m finding inspiration at the moment in the incredible climate and the drama of living a height. My current series of paintings is a collection of abstract skies reflecting this preoccupation. Each one seems to appear on canvas before my eyes.

Offspring back and time to assuage my maternal guilt for sending her to nursery by spending some time playing. We try and hit the pool most days so she can meet her little chums, or I’ll spend many an hour lying on the floor being ‘doctored mama’ while offspring stabs a thermometer in my ear and wraps a bandage round my head.

Bath and Bed follow shortly and by 7:30 she’s snoring like a baby hedgehog.

Spend 15 minutes staring at contents of fridge trying to think of a hearty and nutritious meal that can be made from some broccoli and an onion.

Order a pizza. Open some wine. Show the other half the day’s painting and fill him in on the offspring’s antics. Spend the next few hours together dealing with the business of being an artist, website, email, invoices. Another glass of wine? Oh go on. Crack on the Netflix.

Scrub the paint from my elbows and under my nails and realise it’s midnight and all about to start again…. Goodnight.