My manager just had her baby in December, is on 12 months leave but rang the other day and we were discussing the fact that she was thinking about returning early (financial reasons for her of course, like most people) which lead me to start thinking more seriously about what I am going to do and the length of maternity leave I am going to take.

I work full time in the fitness industry. I have already decided on the date that I will be finishing work - I will be finishing when I am 32 weeks mainly because its the end of the financial year then; didnt see the point of starting another year and the fact that the nature of my job at that stage there wont be alot I can do anyway.

I am really undecided on whether to take the full 12 months off or just take 6 months. I have decided I want to be off work until the baby is at least 6 months old that way it is a good age for my parents to look after as they have already offered to mind the baby should I return to work then so there is no problem with the child's care whilst I am at work.

The only problem I have is that I do not have any intention on going back to work full time. Ideally, if it can be done, I only want to work 2-3 days per week. How would I go about discussing this with my manager? Should I make him aware that I only want to come back part-time before I leave or should I just NOT mention it at all to cover my own back?

I am thinking that I would need to wait for a part time position to come up - which may not even happen. I would seriously doubt they would 'create' a PT position just so I could go back... I guess thats something I need to ask... shall I dare ask though or just leave it? I suppose if I couldnt get a PT position back in the gym I could look at other departments but yeah that would be a last resort!
I love the gym environment too much!

Your thoughts/opinions/scenarios would be greatly appreciated. I have no idea on how I am going to go about this yet