Papatoetoe’s Esmay Mulipola has never looked back on her decision to leave her day job and start life afresh running her own business as a PORSE In-home educator.

The 31-year-old mum of three, who’d spent her entire profession as an administrator, wanted a more rewarding career.  One, that would give her the flexibility she craved and allowed her to care for her youngest child, Messam, aged three.

 “It’s so much more fulfilling,” says Esmay, who has four children in her care at various times throughout the week. “The greatest reward you can have is seeing a child’s face light up over something new they’ve learned or created themselves.”

PORSE offers on-the job training and professional support for its educators which made the transition to self-employment less daunting for Esmay. And although she does not have an early childhood education qualification, Esmay’s looking to begin her studies at the end of this year with PORSE.

Life as an educator has completely changed for Esmay and her family. No longer is it a frantic 6am rush to get her children ready for school to make it in time for work, only to come home exhausted at the end of the day.

Esma’s new schedule allows her not only to be at home with Messam, but also spend more time with her older children, Julius, 10 and Mikayla, seven. Esmay does the school run at both ends of the day and is home to help them with their homework at night.

 “Because we were up so early my children had to be in bed by 7.30pm at the very latest. I felt like I was missing out on a lot,” Esmay says.

PORSE provides educators with learning guides on a range of topics and its website is also packed with resources to create interesting activities for young minds.

Last week Esmay’s focus was on music.

“We’ve been making different musical instruments. Using paper rolls we taped up the ends, painted them, and put the stones inside to make musical shakers. Porse provide a lot of the resources, the paint and paper,” she says.

Financially Esmay says she is earning the same as she was in her administration role, but personally she is much better off.

“Being self-employed was a major step for me, but if you’re sitting in an office and you’re not happy and you love kids, I would definitely recommend it,” she says.

For in-home childcare, work and training go to www.porse.co.nz to find out more.