For Banashree Palit, Instagram was just a mere social space to share her life, until one day when she decided to make a chalkboard for her son’s first birthday. She worked in the corporate sector for 8 years until she quit when her son was born. What started as a lovable gift to her child, grabbed the attention of others who wished something similar.
Soon, people were contacting her for chalkboards and eventually, she started taking orders for them. She started an Instagram page called Cuddles And Chuckles (@cuddlesandchuckles) and began her journey of creating adorable gifts for children. It has been two years since she has been successfully managing the household, being a mother and single-handedly running her work and collaborations.She was first featured in the Mother and Baby India magazine before opportunities came her way. Banashree collaborated with top brands including Medela, Pampers, Panasonic and Godrej. One of her most landmark achievements was winning the “Mumbai ki MomStar” in 2019 organised by Baby Chakra, a platform for mothers bringing them collaborative opportunities. She won the competition with the maximum number of votes.
Banashree’s work kick-started two years back, and it has been quite a hustle from managing household chores to being a mother, managing the work and meeting deadlines. She talks about how the pandemic has increased the work at home and she spends late nights working on her projects. She talks about how focusing on her work sometimes makes it difficult to dedicate extra time to her child but she tries to maintain the balance in creating a healthy relationship between being a blogger and a wonderful mother. There are times when it is a task to shoot videos or click pictures of her son, due to his young age and mood swings, but she tries being calm and supportive of his time and space too.
It also becomes important for her to research and check the products she is endorsing. Being a blogger and mom influencer, she has to keep in mind to not promote products that would have wrong implications on the readers.
Banashree also talks about how her social media engagement got better during the lockdown. There was a rise in the number of bloggers as in the rise of people following up on her work.
She receives queries from mothers or to-be-moms on baby food and care tips, weight-loss, proper dieting and so on.She talks about the support she receives from her husband who helps her in editing and shooting her videos and pictures despite his work. She also mentions how a lot of mom bloggers cannot contribute a lot to their work due to inadequate family support.Banashree recounts memories of how her son first started walking, his love for Maroon 5 and speaking more than two languages at such a young age. “The credit goes to my son. He is my inspiration and motivation. It is because of him where I am now.” Banashree dedicates her achievements to her son. She talks about how it is him that encouraged her to start blogging and working again.
Banashree wants to make her work more crisp and well presented. She wants to grow along with her son and carve a niche for herself in the community of mom bloggers where her work will be known and acknowledged.
Take the world in your stride. Your sincere efforts will definitely make a difference.