Working mums - how many hours do you work?

pixie76

My contracted hours are 37 a week but I easily do over 40 every week so I can accrue flexi.

claire16c

I suppose its all relative but an extra day per week seems like a lot to me, for only £250 rise for a whole month. Is that also before tax? Because remember for those extra days youll also be paying travel to work etc?

kelloggs36

During term time I work sometimes in excess of 60 hours per week, sometimes it is 40. During half terms I work about 20 hours, and during the long summer holidays I will go in for a day to sort out my classroom and will be meeting a colleague to sort out the first weeks' lessons. I'm a teacher.

Metranil_Vavin

I work 3 days a week, Monday to Wednesday, 8am-4pm which works perfectly for us.

I was lucky as I had to quit my full time job before the end of my maternity leave as they were so inflexible about me returning part time. A friend of mine contacted me about my current position, and her company were really flexible.

I'm very happy with the arrangement as I do need to work both financially and for my own sanity reasons, but also love having my 2 mummy days each week

Spamfree_2

I've always believed that if you give birth to a child, you should bring it up, not a nursery or a childminder.

But in this day and age of stupid property prices, 2 car families, foreign hols (that the kids can't remember going on when they were 2) has led us to work work work. All material rubbish, and we've all got ourselves into it by spending spending spending on STUFF.

loobylou2

I'm not a teacher but I work for a company which allows me to work on a term time contract and have all the school holidays off. I work 8.30 till 4.30 on mondays, tuesdays,thursdays and 8.30 till 4.30 on alternate wednesdays and saturdays so if I work on a saturday I have the following wednesday and saturday off work, I then have to work the following wednesday and saturday . I work from 8.30 till 12.30 on fridays. Its complicated and confuses my family and colleagues no end. Even my manager gets confused by it at times!!! lol. DS is 14, DD1 is 12 and DD2 is 6 and they,OH and the rest of my family can never remember whether or not I'm working at the weekends. But I like it and it suits me, I used to work 8 till 6 4 days a week and every saturday and that was too much. Being offered a term time contract by my employer is the main reason why I'm still doing the job as I had been on the point of resigning and they offered me term time in order to stop me from leaving. I work for a large company though which is why I think the flexibility is there as a couple of my colleagues also just work in term time. I guess it all depends on who the employer is really but know that I was very very lucky to be offered term time when I was.

brians_daughter

I work 60 hours a week on average, last week was 53, week before was 71.

I'm a single parent and I'm also 3 weeks off completing a degree.

I have 3 jobs.

Job 1 I work 2 13 hour night shifts the 2 nights my 4 are with their father.

Job 2 I work 13 hours doing a friends company books and payroll

Job 3 I have an eBay shop and spend on average 20-25 hours a week in that.

I'm lucky as believe it or not I get to drop my kids off at school every day and collect them too, apart from when they stay at dads

I sleep very little so use the nights they're with dad to work, then sleep whilst they're at school or with granny. Jobs 2 and 3 I do after 8pm, from home whilst they sleep. Apart from buying stock, then I take them with me.

I feel no guilt at all, as I'm in a very fortunate situation.

brians_daughter

Spamfree wrote: »

I've always believed that if you give birth to a child, you should bring it up, not a nursery or a childminder.

But in this day and age of stupid property prices, 2 car families, foreign hols (that the kids can't remember going on when they were 2) has led us to work work work. All material rubbish, and we've all got ourselves into it by spending spending spending on STUFF.

For me, it's nothing to do with "stuff" it's about persuing my goals and aspirations whilst supporting my family. I bring my children "up" I drop. Them and collect them from school. The only time anyone else has them is their father and the odd afternoon with granny, which would occur regardless of my job situation.

claire16c

Spamfree wrote: »

I've always believed that if you give birth to a child, you should bring it up, not a nursery or a childminder.

But in this day and age of stupid property prices, 2 car families, foreign hols (that the kids can't remember going on when they were 2) has led us to work work work. All material rubbish, and we've all got ourselves into it by spending spending spending on STUFF.

I agree that crazy house prices are a major point as to why many people have both parents working.

But I remember all family holidays from the age of 3, and I wouldnt call them 'stuff'. I met lots of people from around the world, learnt about other cultures, and we all had a great time. Worth every penny.

Also some women/men want to work. They want to keep up their career, or enjoy not just being 'mum' or 'dad'. Or what if their partner were to get ill/leave them etc?

raq

i worked full time on my first child for 5 years , then 3 days on my second child. My mum looked after them and YES i did have to pay her. Then when I had my 3rd I took my redundancy as I couldn,t afford to pay her anymore and also they are our children. It was very hard but I had no choose. My sister in law works very long hours and liitle one is in a nursery full time. Little one is very bright and seems settled but as they only see the little one for 2 hours a day , dd is very very clingly, whingey and won.t leave them alone. They always say whenever you see them that he is "Tired". He isn,t he just wantes his mum or dad just a little bit more.

I am fully aware she has to work but don,t moan about your child when it was your choose to take on a more demanding job knowing how it would effect your family life. Oh and also moans about the child care costs and how skint they are....