Return to More®

More clarity. More confidence. More of who you actually are. That's the outcome everything here is built around.

Support her return. Keep your best people.

1:1 coaching, manager training and HR consultancy for the biggest transition point in a parent's career — before, during and after leave. Built around mothers, and open to every parent.

Book a call See how it works
Cali Gold, founder of Mother Tells Coaching
Cali Gold15 years in senior HR, People and Talent leadershipMum of 3
The invisible load

She's not tired. She's carrying everything.

Three in four UK mothers with dependent children are now in paid work, up from two in three at the start of the century. The support around them hasn't kept pace.

The women I coach are ambitious, capable and very good at what they do. But they arrive at work with a hundred tabs already open: the nursery pickup, the school email, the appointment, the birthday, the meal plan. None of it closes when they sit down at their desk.

This isn't a resilience problem. Telling women to cope better won't fix an environment that keeps asking for more. It's a management and leadership issue, and one organisations can genuinely solve.

66%

of working mothers experience burnout from a lack of personal time, compared with 47% of fathers.

64%

feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities, against 38% of fathers.

1 in 4

working parents use almost two weeks of annual leave a year to care for their children or parents.

Deloitte UK / YouGov survey of 2,000+ UK working parents, June 2026. Employment figures: Office for National Statistics.

Two clear paths

Built for her. Open to every parent.

Structured, data and insight-led programmes — not generic training. Everything here is built from what the evidence actually says works, and measured against outcomes that matter: whether she stays, whether she progresses, whether every parent feels able to use the leave they're entitled to, and whether your policy holds up in practice. Mothers are our dedicated focus. Fathers and partners are supported too.

For Employers

Everything here can be brought into your organisation — training for your managers and HR teams, and coaching for the parents returning. Backed by data, not guesswork, from our own Risk Score diagnostic to the retention research below.

Your managers and HR teams

Manager Coaching

For the people who go first

The return-to-work conversation is the one many managers dread, and often avoid. In one recent benchmark, only a quarter of employers surveyed (25%) provided any manager guidance or training on supporting parental leave.Bright Horizons, Parental Leave Benchmark 2026

Our practical sessions give managers the real words, the right timing and the confidence to stop avoiding it out of fear of getting it wrong, with mothers first and with fathers and partners too.

65%

of returning parents say their employer simply doesn't understand how difficult coming back to work actually is.Growth Spurt / HR Magazine

The best policy and the best pay mean nothing if she isn't met with support, trust and agility through one of the hardest transitions women face in their career. That starts with the manager in front of her, not the handbook behind them. And when managers get this right, it becomes normal for every parent to use the leave they're entitled to.

HR & L&D Support

The policy work behind the conversation

A review of your tools, policies, benefits and your maternity, paternity and shared parental leave rights against real experience — including the April 2026 day-one changes — and getting your organisation ready for the 2027 gender equality action plan requirement.

What a review covers

  • Your policies and benefits, read against what actually happens in practice
  • Maternity, paternity and shared parental leave rights, including the April 2026 day-one changes
  • Your parental leave and return-to-work data, so your plan contains real actions, not just intentions
  • Readiness for the 2027 gender equality action plan requirement

See what's changing in 2027 →

Your people

1:1 Coaching

For the woman in the middle of it

Confidential coaching before, during and after leave — identity, confidence, and the practical reality of a role that no longer fits the same way. Including the pivot, if "going back" doesn't mean going back at all.

What this looks like in practice

  • 4 in-depth 1:1 coaching sessions across the parental leave journey — before you leave, during your leave, and in the weeks and months after you're back
  • Unlimited email support between sessions, so support doesn't stop the moment the call ends
  • Your own copy of the Return to More toolkit — practical guides, prompts and checklists for every stage, from the first announcement to twelve months on
  • Built on 15 years of real HR and people leadership experience — not generic coaching theory
Small-group coaching · Mothers

For mothers who need to know they're not the only one

There's something powerful about going through a big change alongside women who just get it. Our small-group programme brings mothers at the same stage of return together for guided coaching, honest conversation and peer support.

Together we work on

  • Letting go of the beliefs quietly holding your career back
  • Staying motivated at work without carrying guilt home
  • Finding your footing as a leader who's also a mother
  • The mental load, and how to lighten it
  • Moving past perfectionism

Ask about the next group →

1:1 Coaching · Fathers & partners

For dads and partners too

Becoming a parent changes work for fathers and partners as well, and it rarely gets talked about. The same confidential 1:1 coaching, for the return after paternity or shared parental leave and everything that comes with it.

Day 1

Paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights in Great Britain on 6 April 2026, and paternity leave can now follow shared parental leave.Employment Rights Act 2025

  • Preparing for, and returning from, paternity or shared parental leave
  • Being the supportive partner and the employee, without dropping either
  • Boundaries, wellbeing and the mental load nobody sees
  • Having the flexible working conversation with confidence
For Individuals

Coaching that goes further.

Mothers are the heart of this work, but boundaries, wellbeing and ambition aren't only a mothers' issue, or only a return-to-work issue. These conversations come up for everyone. 1:1 coaching here is open to every parent, men and women alike.

Boundaries

  • Saying no without the guilt or the over-explaining
  • Protecting time that's actually yours — evenings, weekends, headspace
  • Setting expectations at work you can sustain, not just survive this week
  • Noticing when "being helpful" has quietly become "being available always"
  • Having the conversation before resentment builds, not after

Wellbeing

  • Noticing the gap between "fine" and actually fine, before it becomes burnout
  • Building habits that fit real life, not an idealised version of it
  • Understanding what's actually driving your stress, not just managing the symptoms
  • Permission to rest without needing to earn it first
  • Knowing when it's time to ask for more support, and how to ask for it

The Motherhood–Ambition Axis

How to find your clarity and confidence

Motherhood and ambition is a complex topic — one that needs nuance, and both the personal and organisational view. This work gives you proven coaching tools to unlock real clarity on where you sit on the motherhood–ambition axis.

Outcomes

  • How to define your own ambition values
  • How pressure, perfectionism and pleasing can hold you back
  • The macro view: the invisible structures and forces that hold mothers back
  • Understanding the impact of the "second shift" and mental load on ambition
Book a call
Why it matters

Nearly half of women planning to return after leave are already halfway out the door.

43%

are already thinking about leaving before they're even back.

90%

say they weren't offered any formal return-to-work support.

79%

of mothers who go back full-time end up leaving, because they can't sustain it alongside a baby.Careers After Babies Report

£30k+

average cost of replacing an employee — retention is usually cheaper than recruitment.

85%

leave full-time work within 3 years — without the right support.

Careers After Babies Report
vs
90%

stay when specialist coaching is part of the return.

Commonly cited, EY
Gender Action Planning 2027

Gender equality is moving from reporting to action.

From 2027, organisations with 250 people or more are expected to have to publish what they're actually doing to tackle workplace gender inequality — not just report the gap.

But if we're serious about women's equality at work, we need to understand what happens at one of the biggest career transition points: motherhood. That includes fathers too. When dads and partners are supported to take leave, caring stops being treated as a women's issue.

  • 250+people: the organisations affected
  • April 2026action plans open on a voluntary basis
  • Spring 2027expected to become mandatory

We help you get ready: a clear-eyed look at your parental leave and return-to-work data, policies and practice, so your plan contains real actions, not just intentions.

Check your readiness Talk to us

Employment Rights Act 2025. Mandatory timing is subject to secondary legislation.

Who returns?

Who stays?

Who progresses?

Who leaves — and why?

You can't close the gender gap without understanding the motherhood gap.

Free tool

Return to More® Risk Score

How exposed is your organisation?

Six quick questions. One honest answer: how exposed is your organisation to losing parents and prospective parents you never meant to lose?

Before you begin

Tell us who you are and we'll tailor your result. It takes about two minutes.

We'll only use your details to follow up about your result and return-to-work support. No spam.

Hi, I'm Cali Gold

15 years spent listening to what mothers don't say out loud.

15years in senior HR, People and Talent leadership

I've spent 15 years in senior HR, People and Talent roles — including in-house at Deloitte, Gett and YuLife — building the policies, leadership programmes and culture work organisations point to as proof they support their people. And I've watched that policy fail to make it into the one conversation that actually decides whether she stays.

I'm also a mum of three. I know the hundred open tabs, and I know what it takes to walk back into work and feel like yourself again.

Mother Tells Coaching exists to close that gap — coaching for her, the right language for her manager and team, and a clear-eyed look at where your policy meets, or misses, real experience. Mothers are our dedicated focus; fathers and partners are supported too.

The podcast

Mother Tells, the podcast

I launched it during my own maternity leave. Twice a month, women and mothers from all over the world, across every industry, share what working, motherhood and going back to work really felt like: what helped, what fuelled the anxiety, and what their workplaces did and didn't get right.

Hearing these stories first-hand is how I understand what women in every kind of workplace are really going through.

2 new episodes a monthWomen & mothers worldwideEvery industry
Listen on Spotify →

All coaching is confidential — nothing discussed is shared with an employer without explicit consent.

The difference
Cali really understood my wobbles and nerves — not just about leaving my children, but returning to a full-time new job. She truly listened, gave me support, but also gave me tangible tools that have stayed with me. Going back to work was very difficult for me, but Cali made it much lighter and easier.
— Sophie, working mum, returned to work after redundancy

Let's talk about what your people need to hear.

Whether it's one conversation with a returning employee, a workshop for your team, a group programme for your mothers, or a proper look at your policy, tell me where you're starting from. The first conversation is always free and always confidential.

cali@mothertells.com

The parental gap doesn't wait to show up in your numbers. Let's close it before it does.

cali@mothertells.com