Getting time off to actually enjoy summer with your children is a drag for thousands of parents. Not Christy Hynd.
The Geelong-based graphic designer worked full time in a regular job until she had her little girl Maggie, nearly four years ago.
![Christy Hind, co-owner of Maggie Moo.](/web/20161210175816im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/2/t/8/3/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt2u1q.png/1480813659469.jpg)
Now her flourishing business gives Hynd the luxury of a proper summer holiday to enjoy with Maggie and it's something that she knows wouldn't have happened if she had stuck to her last job.
"My mum and I started Little Maggie Moo, which is an Etsy store for handmade bloomers and topknots as a creative outlet during maternity leave," she said.
"I would have gone back to being full time and even though [my previous workplace] did shut down over Christmas, it was only for just over a week."
A new study by accounting software company Xero has found that parents who are business owners will manage to take 50 per cent more holiday leave than their counterparts.
While most working parents will be able to take two weeks over the long summer break, many small business owners will get three weeks.
"I lived in Melbourne for most of my adult life but now that we're in Geelong, we get to enjoy the surf coast all summer from Portarlington to Torquay and Ocean Grove," said Hynd.
"We love to do all those outdoor activities and plan to spend most of summer exploring beaches and being out and about together, so I'm really lucky I can do that and still get by."
Hynd keeps up her graphic design freelancing work to supplement the business that takes up about 10 hours a week for her and 20 hours a week for her mother.
"Being a sole trader means after Maggie goes to sleep I can log on and do a bit of payroll, invoicing or work on my freelance projects," she said.
Hynd also says that closing the business down is much easier in e-commerce.
"We can almost close whenever we want so long we just let people know on Instagram."
The study of nearly 1300 small business owners also found that parents of small children with businesses are less stressed about childcare, with only 14 per cent reporting that it's a point of pain as opposed to 21 per cent of parents with employers.
"Australian parents are increasingly being drawn to small business ownership and becoming their own boss so they don't have to sacrifice family time for work," Xero CEO Trent Innes says.
Hynd's move out of regular employment is in line with Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released earlier in the year that show Victoria has the highest increase in small business activity.
"It's never going to be easy, you still have days when it's hard and it really depends on your child," Hynd said.
"Your kid isn't healthy and happy all the time, especially three-year-olds, they have their tantrums. On the days when I think she really needs me, I can be there."
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