The other morning in the shower I was interrupted in my reveries of ablution by the world mumpreneur. This is not a word I use, engage with often, or thought I had an opinion about. Until now.

I am a mum. I am an entrepreneur. I run my own design, editorial and trends business, undertake freelance writing and run several blogs. That morning as I took the only spare 5 minutes available to get clean with the twins propped up by CBeebies the word mumpreneur embedded itself in my brain and really, I mean really bugged me.

There is something about the term that is so very, I don’t know – tea and cake. As if being a female, no matter what we have achieved in a life before wobbly tummies and utter exhaustion, is all meaningless tosh compared to the data entry we can do  in our spare time whilst baby sleeps, or the cakes we can bake for the W.I in between ironing shirts for The Man. To me there is an air of “that’s nice dear, do some typing about the baby groups” about the term that, quite frankly, gets on my gravity-challenged tits.

Don’t get me wrong – I am thrilled that mums who work get some support and recognition, it is bloody hard work trying to balance everything. No one warned me at the NCT group how tiredness sends you utterly mental, that in the early days you slump on the floor wishing the hours away for someone to come and help you so you can get some god damn sleep, yet still managing to somehow work, run a business, brief colleagues, make sure there is dinner. There is, without a doubt, a balance to be had in holding down some kind of job and looking after children, and self employment is a fabulous route to be the boss of your own time and to enable flexibility in managing a home and family.

As a mother of 17 month old twin girls I am still in the fairly recent identity mash-up period of adjusting to the ecstasy of motherhood and the acceptance that I am not the only one in my life to consider when I have flights of fancy. I have Responsibilities. Trips to town for meetings require military style planning of childcare, pick ups, overlaps, schedules.

Of course it is all worth it, my daughters are the very core of my being, the lights of my life for whom I exist and the source of immeasurable happiness I never believed possible, But does that mean I need to park my BA, my MA, my years of career experience at the door to sew Cath Kidston baby bags on Etsy?

I will concede at this stage, dear reader, that in my acceptance of my new combined role as Banana Feeder and Business Woman I have found pleasure in baking, cooking and other taboo mummy activities. I have managed to find creativity in the domestic tasks at home, I am an avid reader of interior and baking blogs with a wishlist on Pinterest of gorgeous kitchen appliances, and I have found a new affinity with Radio 4.

I still don’t iron and I hate housework with a passion but you know, we have progress. I may do the nursery run in trackies before sticking on the slap and networking at a beauty launch or meeting with clients and it’s all part of the juggling act, the Edward de Bono 6 thinking hats with less aplomb and more dry shampoo involved.

There are a lot of resources out there for mums wishing to start their own businesses and I am all for it. Mumpreneur.co.uk is one such source of advice for start up mums, and I do totally understand the need to realise that self employment for mothers is a different kettle of fish to other folk.

We are dealing with people who may have lost confidence on maternity leave, who may be struggling with post natal depression, or who wish to spend more time with their children and be in charge of their own careers. On the days I have Skype meetings in PJ’s or am too tired to communicate with human beings I thank my lucky stars I am the boss. And I am the boss, the One in Charge. Which is why I somehow find “mumpreneur” too fluffy, too patronizing.

Or maybe that’s just my hormones. I am a woman after all. If only I could make up my mind.