Summer is here and with it the call of the great outdoors. Before long, the memory of those elongated winter days will seem a distant memory. We really do look forward to the summer holidays and with every reason! This time, however, we are well aware how family budgets have taken a hammering due to the effects of the big economic recession. It is not easy to make ends meet, to pay the mortgage or rent and put food on the table, let alone find money to pay for those special summer trips.

It is traditionally very difficult to strike a balance when planning your budget and meeting family expectations and this is where professional coaching could help to put you on the right track. Consult with your online coaching expert to find the best way to win this battle according to your particular circumstances. In the meantime, we have used our professional coaching expertise to scour the Web, to find 10 great days out for you to consider this summer, an eclectic collection, each for under a tenner.

Kids love models and grown-up kids do as well, so why not try Bekonskot Model Village in rural Buckinghamshire, where you can marvel at this "eccentric" recreation of a model Village, complete with mandatory model railway. www.bekonscot.com is your place to find out the details.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, check out the location that inspired Hogwarts at Alnwick Castle. This is the realm of dragons and medieval knights and can be a splendid place for children to release their imaginations. www.alnwickcastle.com/

Go way back in time by visiting Hadrian's Wall, a place where you can view numerous artefacts from the Roman era and see some of the best preserved castles and forts. Visit www.hadrians-wall.org/ to get a list of all of the locations you can visit for less than a tenner.

You would never have thought that frightening dinosaurs could have roamed the countryside in such a pleasant place as rural Norfolk, would you? These beasts hold a fascination for kids and they are almost certain to love the Dinosaur Adventure Park, as they learn about how these ancient creatures interacted. www.dinosauradventure.co.uk

Harry Potter turned us into an army of believers and we want to know all there is to know about witchcraft and wizardry, so there can be no better a place to visit than picturesque Alderley Edge. There is something for all the family here though as well, at this national trust designated site. www.alderleyedge.org.

There was a time when the Welsh relied on coal as one of their primary economic drivers. While this may well have been a very long time ago, the Big Pit National Mining Museum can still elicit a sense of excitement amongst the children as they journey down into an old mine shaft, dressing up as one of the miners and seeing how they lived. www.museumwales.ac.uk

When it comes to music, we all speak the same language and during the summer, BBC Proms Plus is staging a number of free events for families. Now is your chance to make sure that the kids know what "real" music is all about! BBC Proms Plus http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2010/whatson/plus.shtml

Kids love trains and even though today's modern versions are not as evocative as the steam belching railway locomotives of old, just see how your kids are inspired when they see 100 or more of the old-timers at the National Railway Museum. www.NRM.org.uk

Walk down memory lane and bring the memories flooding back for you as well as giving the kids a glimpse of the past. Admission is free at the Museum of Childhood. www.museumofchildhood.org.uk (East London).

Finding something to do in London at no cost is quite a tall order, so why not try going to the Tower of London, where you can even enjoy a treasure hunt on the beach! www.hrp.org.uk.

We hope that some of these trips can be inspirational and if so, think how you could make your life as a working mum even more pleasurable throughout the year, not just during the summer, by looking at online coaching alternatives.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

As a working mum, you could be forgiven for feeling those pangs of guilt from time to time. You sometimes feel as if you are doing the wrong thing all the time, even when you are doing your best. If you decide to stay home and look after your children, you think that some people are looking down their noses at you, accusing you of not contributing enough. If you decide to go back to work after childbirth, you feel guilty about that option as well and feel that some people are criticising you for not giving enough attention to your children. It appears that you cannot win. You are not alone in feeling this way and rest assured that this kind of torment is quite usual; it might be a good idea for you to consider professional coaching? This kind of specialised online coaching for women can help you realise that all is not lost, that others are in a similar position to you and that you can really look forward with optimism and confidence.

Whether you decide to go back to a career, or to take the bold move of setting up your own business, more power to you! There's nothing wrong with your decision and if you want to be successful, you need to be at peace with yourself. As a working mum, you may need to give yourself a good talking to, to help you realise that you have everything going for you and are doing a marvellous job, providing for yourself and for your family.

Whenever guilt arises, it can lead to confusion and this in turn can lead to negativity and depression. There is a danger that you do not know all the facts about your given situation. You need to reduce your stress levels by finding out all the facts and turning on all those lights in those darkened rooms in your head! By being informed in this way, you can assess all the risks and opportunities presented to you and form a highly educated view of the situation. Taking a concerted action and finding out all the facts will in turn give you internal strength and make you feel much better about your position.

Surround yourself with people who support you and who are positive. Create distance between you and all those negative people and in fact it would be far better if you lost their contact details! If you surround yourself with a very important group of positive people, you can bounce off any challenges you might fear and will be a lot stronger as a result of this feedback. This is not to say that you should delegate all the problem-solving to them, quite the opposite. This is definitely a two-way street and by contributing to the value of the group proactively, you're on the right track. Yet another valuable source of support for you can be found within online coaching.

Remember to travel light when you are getting ready for your big challenge. This means that you should get rid of anything that is not appropriate from the world all around you. Create a very positive workspace all around you, which is very important if you are working from home, have your own business or are telecommuting. When your environment is clear all around you, this will make you feel far more productive and you will be ready and focused for your day ahead.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

We know that we have 24 hours in each day and that this should be plenty of time for us to complete everything that we have to do, with ample time to spare. The dawn of each day should bring a fresh outlook to all of us and we should feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle anything that life has in store. However, for one reason or another it seems that we are always playing catch-up, despite what we might feel are our best intentions. In this way, when the sun sets and the evening approaches, we end up feeling frustrated, wondering why we have not been able to do everything that we had set out to do. This seems especially apparent as a busy working mum and we often ask ourselves how we can become more efficient, or find an extra hour or two to help us out. Well, maybe we can:

1. Maybe you need to "screen" all your phone calls, before they reach you? There are some great programs available these days, including Google Voice, which will help you to prioritise the calls that you really need to take, from the calls that can wait. This technology now allows you to block callers that you do not want to be bothered with, in the future. By having your own, personal secretary in this way, you will not waste valuable minutes.

2. You have heard about outsourcing? While we know that it is difficult to find a good childminder and you might be taking on this task yourself when working or tele-commuting from home, understand that other chores can be outsourced, including daily cleaning work.

3. Get a good time management software program, learn how to use it and stick with it. At first glance it can feel a bit strange, but if you are prepared to stick with it, it will certainly help you to focus and this by itself will save a great deal of time, each day.

4. Plan as much as you want, but make sure you follow through. If you have a rather muddled list of things that you have to accomplish in your head, you will bounce back and forth between these chores and not be efficient. Before you go to bed, or immediately when you wake up in the morning, spend time planning out exactly what you are going to do.

5. Allocate an hour for communication. This time will include your access to Facebook or other social networks, time to check e-mail and to make all those phone calls that you need to return. You would be amazed how much time can be lost if you're constantly checking e-mails or taking phone calls without a structured plan.

6. When you're planning your time, include a "buffer" at appropriate intervals. Never allocate time for a string of tasks, one after the other in an unrealistic fashion. By inserting your "buffer," if you get delayed, sidetracked or fall behind your schedule in any way, you will be okay.

7. Combine your exercise time with "catching up" time. If you allocate, as you should, a minimum of 30 minutes to 45 minutes a day for physical activity, combine this with your time to catch up on the news and current affairs. This could mean the installation of a television in your workout area, or this may now become the time to listen to a particular media channel or even to read updates through your electronic book reader.

These days, online coaching experts know full well the value of time management and how adequate planning can help you to free up extra time that you might have overlooked. You will find that professional coaching is widely used by people throughout life and not just in the corporate executive arena. Why not try professional coaching for women in your situation?

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!

With your new arrival now firmly ensconced within your household, it's time to consider making the transition back to work. Everything happened so quickly and it has been a whirlwind, so the fact that you have not thought much about your career and employer over this time is to be understood. The time to transition back to the real world is rapidly approaching and this can be quite a bumpy transition, to put it mildly.

It is common for a woman in your position to feel uncertain, confused and a little intimidated. Now may be the time to consider online coaching to help you approach this critical juncture in your life from a position of strength.

If you have decided that it is time for you to move on and find a new employer, possibly even a brand-new career, you will need to consolidate your position and build a powerful stance before you approach any new candidate companies. Consider exactly why an employer would be interested in talking to you, by fully evaluating your skill set at this time. This is not the time for nagging worries and you have to develop assertiveness and a supreme confidence, for best results.

Start afresh with a clear mind and a clean sheet of paper and notate all the skills that you have. Go all the way back to school and college and remember all the skills that you picked up there, as well as anything that you can remember from previous jobs and other employment. In a prominent position, detail the undoubted skills that you picked up as an organiser and planner, most recently as you developed your new family! Remember that, from an employer's perspective, skills do not always have to be accompanied by some kind of paper qualification, issued by an educational establishment or by some other organisation. In these days, when it is difficult to find good employees, an employer will be looking for dedication, self-assurance, self-confidence and an ability to be a self-starter.

This is not the time to be downhearted if you have a lack of formal education. This can be more than made up for by a dedication and a willingness to go the extra mile, over-delivering for the employer, something that the vast majority do not do. The would-be employer will see this in you and will be more than willing to add you to their team.

Nowadays, online coaching is invaluable when it comes to focusing your mind on what you have to offer, your expertise, abilities and capability. Sometimes we get so caught up in the moment and with everything else that we have going on, that we overlook or forget what we can really bring to the table. Ladies face a particularly difficult challenge when it comes to balancing family life and their careers and professional coaching can specifically address these matters.

Whether you are going toward pastures new, or going back toward the old employer, you need to be in a very strong position, either way. Make sure that you sell yourself appropriately and enjoy your new life!!

Amanda Alexander, Director of Coaching Mums, helps pressure-cooked, stressed working mums who long for more hours in the day. Through her coaching programmes and online life coaching courses, Amanda shows mums how to create fulfilling and successful lives. For your simple 5 step guide to balance as a working mum, download our free eBook today!