Once baby came how did your work life change?

onlyroz

Spendless wrote: »

The same situation where I live, though childcare for the Primary school years is very much dependant on which school your child attends - plenty where my youngest goes, barely any at the next nearest school 10 mins walk away, it practically all vanishes when child goes to yr 7.


No after school provision and no holiday care unless you are able to pick up at 3.30 at the Sports clubs that take older children. In addition Secondary schools often close earlier than Primary schools, after school clubs like homework or sports clubs aren't always an answer if it then creates an issue getting home because the school dedicated bus service doesn't run at a later time and there's no public transport and the walking/cycling route isn't viable.


It was for this reason we 'built up' what the kids were allowed to do from eldest being at end of yr 4 and in yr 5 for daughter who is more immature than her older brother. We started with allowing them to go to the shops alone amd walking to school with friends and then leaving them if we needed to pop to local shops.

How old is your eldest? It can be difficult to 'project' how your child will be a few years into the future. I found my son grew up a lot though not long after his 11th birthday.

The current after school club is a collaboration between three schools, and at the end of the day my kids are driven by people-carrier to another school in the village. Not ideal because it means I have to travel a bit further to collect them but it works out much cheaper than the childminder I was using last year. And the same organisation runs the holiday club so there is consistency.

My son is in year four at the moment. I don't yet trust him to start going about on his own but I might start letting him e.g. go to the park on his own soon. As for the secondary schools, there are two that he could go to and one is right across the road from my mum's house - but I don't think she would be happy to have him there every day. Maybe by then my husband will be able to reduce his hours so that he can do the school run every day.

barbiedoll

I was lucky enough to be able to stay at home for the first 3 years, we lived in a tiny flat with a very small mortgage, holidays were staying with friends who live by the sea and our old car was run into the ground.

I managed to get a part-time job locally and although I didn't make much money after the childminder was paid, it got me back into the workplace. They were great about having time off if DS was sick and they were very good about holidays and so on. As DS got older, I was able to shuffle my hours around and ended up working for 2 full days and one half day. My childminder moved house and luckily, one of my friends got her childminding certificates through just in time to take my DS, I was her first client! She was a godsend, I was able to go into full-time employment and we managed to get a mortgage and move into our house.

It's been hard at times, DH has been made redundant 3 times in the last 12 years, we have struggled and I hated not being at home during the holidays. DH got a job 5 years ago, working permanent nights. This meant that he was at home during the day so DS wasn't left home alone during the holidays or after school.
He's just managed to get transferred to days now, so we have the chance of a social (and love!) life again, DS is almost 16 so he's quite happy to be left alone when he's not at school.

We've never been well off, as soon as I got a promotion/pay rise, something would go wrong with DH's job and we'd be back to square one again. I've been the main breadwinner for the past 5 years and I do envy my colleagues who have been able to work part-time whilst their children are growing up. But I love my job and I must admit, staying at home full-time is definitely not for me.

an9i77

After I had my first child, I went back to work full time and my partner became a SAHD. We are able to afford this because luckily he owns a property in central london which we rent out, as we live oop north the mortgage on our house is only 1/4 what the property earns (despite being a much bigger place to live!) so we use the rest as income. Just had another child and whilst I am on mat leave, DP is contracting but we will swap roles again once I go back. I get quite bored being at home all day, DP doesn't mind so much. (having said that I get bored at work too, but slightly less I think )

ciderwithrosie_2

Went back to work full-time when DS1 was 12 weeks old, he went to a nursery run by a friend of ours. Got pregnant again before the year was out and worked up until 3 weeks before DS2 was born. Couldn't afford childcare for two, so I became a SAHM with odd jobs here and there for the next 6 - 7 years in which I had DS3 too. Went back to work part-time (25 hours) when the older 2 were at school and DS3 was due to start school in a few months.

Didn't have to worry about childcare by then as I used to take the older ones to school and OH would come home from work and look after DS3 or take him to playschool and collect him at 12 and give him lunch, then I'd finish work at 1 and take over so he could get some sleep.

lady1964

I was a sahm when all mine were babies up until they were 14, 11 & 7. It was a real struggle for a couple of years when my eldest was a baby but did get easier thanks to dh getting a job overseas & his salary increases were really good. I went back to work p/time when youngest was 7 & managed with after school clubs, holiday clubs & very good parents on both sides.
Once youngest was 12, I went f/time as she was responsible enough to be at home for a while until the older 2 got home.
I do consider myself very fortunate to have been able to stay at home for so long & the financial struggle was worth it for us.

neverdespairgirl

I went back to work part-time when DS was 3 months old, and full-time when he was about 5 months old. Will do the same when number 2 son is born in May this year.

Childcare is incredibly, astonishingly expensive, and I agree, children starting school doesn't solve a lot of the issues.