A Level Playing Field is the No.1 destination for audio and written content on women’s football in Scotland. Their brilliant weekly podcast, hosted by Alison McConnell and Cheryl Smith, brings you closer to the players and stories shaping the game in this country. Every month Nutmeg FC will feature a collaborative article. Here, Alison considers the challenges faced by players who have become parents, and their determination to give their best to their lives on and off the field.
By Alison McConnell
Turns out, the remote for the TV was in the fridge. Not to state the obvious, but it wasn’t a place that had been high on the checklist when the search party — a fractious, witching hour toddler and a clingy baby — were initially enlisted.
How we laughed when it finally revealed itself! The TV remote in the fridge! Such absurdity is what ensues when one is surviving on broken sleep, keeping infants fed, watered, dry and, for the most part, content.
Like most, the memories for me of the foggy early months with a new baby are hazy. The time it took to get everyone out of the house. The basics, like showering, and making oneself appear broadly acceptable to the outside world, seemed to take hours. Lunchtime would roll around and it was as though nothing had been done; cold cups of tea barely touched perched on side-tables, washing piled so high it ran the risk of gathering snow at the top.
So, when winger Claire Emslie scored for Scotland a few weeks back and promptly burst into tears as she spotted her baby son, Jamie, snuggled up in the stand with her mum, it was easy to understand the emotion. And even easier to appreciate the sacrifice it must have taken to get back to playing international football so soon after the birth.
The baby is just ten months old. Some of us were still so wrecked at that stage that we were sticking the TV remote rather than the milk in the fridge. Others have got it so together that they can score World Cup goals for their country.
Based in LA, Emslie took her little boy with her to the Scotland camp as Melissa Andreatta’s side took another significant, tantalising step towards next summer’s World Cup in Brazil. Emslie’s goal helped them on their way as they beat Czechia to book that play-off final spot where Sweden await in December.
Her first goal since returning to football following the delivery, Emslie was inevitably overcome in the aftermath of watching the ball hit the back of the net, just moments after she had been introduced off the bench. Equally notable was the reaction of her colleagues, with Caroline Weir and Erin Cuthbert both commenting on how well she has balanced the steep introduction to parenting without dropping the ball.
But there is always a before and after at such seismic life moments. There is a change that motherhood brings that is more than just physical — and that is not to downplay the huge physiological changes that take place and the recovery that needs to follow to be able to even think about playing elite, professional sport. There is also a massive mental shift. Decisions are no longer made for oneself, rather everything is framed through the prism of motherhood. Jumping on a plane across the Atlantic to represent your country is one thing when there is only you to think of. Carting a baby with you is another consideration altogether.
So kudos to Emslie and those like here. It would have been easy to bow out of international football, to step away and protect some precious free time when the international weeks take hold, especially given the distance between where she works in her day job and the journey back to Scotland for international camps.
Emslie, accompanied by Jamie, was in front of the US press this week after scoring her first club goal with her little boy perched on her knee, babbling away, as she fielded questions about her return.
It says much about the scaffolding around the women’s game that it is possible to take time out to start a family while being supported, in every aspect, before returning to the dressing room. There remains a significant way to go in the women’s game when it comes to financially looking after players but even a decade ago it would have been incredibly difficult to imagine players balancing kids with their careers.
Like so much in the women’s game, there is much to be said about those who went before.
Closer to home, Lisa Robertson did the same as she celebrated the birth of a son before returning to professional football with a season at Hearts before moving back to Celtic. She spent her summer break this year working her socks off to return for pre-season lean, fit and strong. Her son, Lucas, was on the pitch with her as Celtic won the Scottish Cup at Hampden in May, a moment that she described as “incredible”.
Her midfield colleague, Natalie Ross, gave birth to a daughter just a few weeks ago. She will still be in the beautiful chaos of those first months but the commitment, the discipline and the dedication shown from any full-time athlete who returns to the peak of their sport is not to be underestimated.
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