What does mothering look like if you remove all the drudgery?

If the week’s headlines are to be believed, those selfish working parents are sending the nanny to parent-teacher night, and the world’s going to hell in a handbag.

Finger-wagging about what parents are and aren’t doing these days is beginning to feel like a blood sport.

Do you pack the lunches every day? TICK.

Order from the tuck shop to save the morning insanity? CROSS.

Sigh. For many of us, the least pleasant part of parenthood is the drudgery that comes with it. The endless washing. The monotonous regularity of feeding them something. Every single night. The cleaning of disrespected toilets. The never-ending picking-up of toys.

So if you can outsource all of that, so that you can focus on two things: WORK and KIDS, what would life look like?

For most of us, that’s an impossible dream. But for those who can, it makes motherhood… different.

We got a glimpse of that this week when we spoke to Emma Isaacs, the CEO of Business Chicks. Emma is a woman who runs a business that operates in four time zones, employs over 40 people and, yes, also has four kids under six.

So she is an expert at prioritising, organising and outsourcing. ‘

Now living in LA, Emma has a full-time nanny and a full-time housekeeper.

So, what doesn’t Emma do?

She doesn’t do cooking.  “Family dinner is important to us, but I outsource it… I love food and I respect it but it’s not my gig.”

She’s outsourced the school pick-up, and the homework.

A photo posted by Emma Isaacs (@emmaisaacs) on Oct 23, 2015 at 10:59pm PDT

She’s outsourced shopping – “There are apps here where I can order my groceries online and they can be here in 30 minutes.”

And preparing the school lunches – sort of. “I position all the lunchboxes.  The gorgeous housekeeper gets up and chops up all the fruit and vegetables and I assemble it.”

She’s outsourced cleaning and washing and doing her hair.

Even the wine run just happens: “There’s an app that means I get my wine and limes delivered with 30 minutes.”

 Listen to Emma talk through her “typical” day. Listen in iTunes here.

But like every parent who has to make some tough choices about what to hold close and what to let go, Emma says she knows what she wants to do for herself.

“What parenting four children has taught me is that I can’t work the hours I used to…  My six-year-old is at the point where she doesn’t want to see me working. So I hide the phone and laptop as much as I can.”

Despite travel and work functions and speaking engagements, she makes it a priority to put her nine-month-old down to bed five nights out of seven.

She does the bedtime books for her kids five nights out of seven.

She’s been the class parent at her daughter’s school, and turns up for the class assembly and any event that she knows is important to her children.

 “My most important filter for what to outsource and what do do is how important will this be to them,” she says.  

  Werking! #bosslady #girlboss #CEO #businesschicks #myskinmatchesthestairs #LA #losangeles #startup @businesschicks_usa   A photo posted by Emma Isaacs (@emmaisaacs) on Feb 16, 2016 at 11:37am PST