I couldn't work full time from about 25 weeks pg and can't see myself getting back to ft anytime soon. I'm really struggling with 3 days on little sleep. Wanting to yell and cry at work really isn't ok.
Both DH and I work full time and i couldn't do it withhout the help of my parents. DH works odd hours (In law inforcement) so isn't always around to do drop off so I don't count on him but when he can its a bonus for me I can get to work earlier and leave earlier to spend time with DD. My parents look after her 2 days and do the daycare pick up on the other 2 days. I work from home one day its hard but managable you just need to be super organised. I also made the decision that I would happily stay in a similar role to what I have for the next few years while DD is growing up and then look at my career options
DH and I have both worked full time since DD was 13 months old (she's now 6). DH is a teacher so he has school holiday time which makes a big difference, however during term time it can be a bit crazy. He has to start early, which means I am on morning shift each day and have to take DD to school. He is able to finish at a reasonable hour though and can pick DD up most days from ASC. He can sometimes be stuck though so I have to step in sometimes - luckily we are both only 15 minutes away from DD's school (and home).
I think I would find it more difficult if we didn't have a break during school holidays. It means DD gets lots of special time with her dad and it means I get a break from the drop off etc. Holiday time gives me a chance to stock up on the freezer meals to get us through the next 10 weeks.
The hardest year was when DH moved schools and DD was still at day care - it was close to my work (we used to work in the same town) so I had to do all the drop offs and pickups (except one each week when DH travelled an extra 35 minutes so I could go to the gym).
If DH wasn't a teacher, I think I would have looked harder at going back part time - it would be difficult in my role, but I think things at home would have fallen apart if we were trying to juggle leave with school holidays etc.
Evenings are busy - we've given up on trying to do reading then and now sit down straight after breakfast to read. You just have to work around and look outside the square!
I work fulltime and DH is building back up to fulltime. He cooks dinner most nights which is a great help but all the rest is up to me. If your both working fulltime and can afford it I suggest getting a cleaner for the bathroom and mopping. I find these my hardest to keep up with as I can't really do it while DS is awake.
We have had times of both of us working full time hours, those times though we were able to fly MIL over to help out. Whilst she did not cook, she would sweep, mop, hang out and fold washing (I would put on the machine). It was just doable for us in that situation. We also have a property to work on as well. If we were to have both of us full time, then I would move to a basic property.
Thanks for the answers it helps - I was speaking to some recruitment agent and I was talking about wanting altered hours so say 7:00 - 15:00 or something and he said lots of people do just normal office hours - but I don't actually know anyone with both parents doing standard office hours - but I know lots of people who do work full-time, so I just wondered. I just can't get my ahead around it having to be like it is now but five days so us both leaving home by 7:15 and getting home 17:45. So I think I am on the right lines sticking to wanting altered hours, unless I can get a job 15 mins away.
Work have begged me to stay an extra month for the past two days - so now I am compromising and agreeing to do a couple more weeks of knowledge transfer. I don't know if is the right decision, I can live with 9 more days.
I could work standard office hours IF school had after school care, but they don't. I would have to move the girls to a different school. Also I am not sure financially it is worth the extra pay, as I would be going back to paying care fees.
Speaking of OHSC, does anyone use it and use morning and afternoon? Do you use everyday or only some? Any experiences of what combinations work well or not?
My boys use OHSC every afternoon and they love it.
When my eldest was in prep, he went morning and afternoon.
I found that DS1 was very tired for the first term in prep but once he adjusted, he was fine. He had been at daycare full time previously so that may have helped.
I think as long as there is a routine, the kids will adjust. I wouldn't recommend chopping and changing days if you can avoid it.
We use after school care 4 days a week - no before school available. What does everyone else pay - ours is $20 a day, then we get the tax rebate back.
DD loves it and would like to be there more often. Heaps of food, craft, playing and they do a sport activity twice a week. Sometimes it's hard to get her to go.
Once a week she catches the bus into town to my work - I finish early and we do the shopping, get a drink, go to the park, or sometimes just go straight home.
Ours is $13 before school and $17 after school. We also use vacation care but my advice is to shop around for a good program. Our oshc one is dreadful so found another one run by teachers close to hubby's work. We also send DD1 to the zoo for their program once every holidays. She adores that because she has an infinite love of animals and they do awesome behind the scenes stuff. We also have the flexibility to take her to work with hubby but that is boring for her so try not to do it. I take as much til as I can during holidays to spend with her.
We have great council run vacation care. $57.50 a day before CCB and CCR, plus excursion and incursion fees. There a generally a couple of big bus trips to places like Halls Gap, or just small local trips to beaches etc. Every day is themed. The girls complain in the morning about going, but are always happy when I pick them up. A couple of rival vacation care services have started up by a couple of the private schools.
School has an active after school program that is free, runs most of the term (first week or two not on), there is no guarantee of a spot, plus the activities are not always great (this term is Football or Netball, which neither girls wants to do). I could not rely on it for work, so chances are if I enrolled the girls, I would use the time to go shopping and only stay at work if there was an urgent need
The school claims there is not enough need for AFC and that it won't help enrolments, but I saw the list of kids going active after school and it was obvious a large portion were enrolled for work purposes, not because their child wanted to play the sport.
I just had a look at what ours would be (is run by Camp Australia) - it appears different rates for casual - I assume that set days every week is not considered casual - so looks like is 12 for before and 17 for after before rebates etc. A few people have said to me that is not much cheaper than daycare - not sure how that can be? 29 dollars a day full fee compared to 109 full fee - and the CCB and CCR applies to both - or am I missing something?
Also appears there is another session called - Prep Gap 2.30pm-3.30pm - does that mean Prep's finish at 2.30? Is that normally just for a few weeks or a term etc? Seems a bit odd that Prep Gap which is an hour costs $10.00 full fee and then normal after care is 3:15 PM to 6:00 PM and $17 does that mean that if you have a prep you end up with a full fee of $27 - just for the afternoon?
What do people do about other activities like swimming etc if using after school care all/most days - does everything get pushed to the weekend or do you find just don't do them?
Work is so annoying, I have been there nearly six months, and still yesterday they were like "oh you are not in tomorrow" (I have only worked one Tuesday in the six months) - "any chance you can do a few hours work for us" - am fed up with trying to cram 35 hours into three days - people seem to fail to understand that it isn't about money, just because getting paid doesn't make it ok.
Last year DD did dancing which was run by an outside person who hired the school hall. She would just get changed at after school care then run across the grounds and we'd pick her up after it finished.
We do swimming at 5:30 in the evening, so we pick her up at normal time from ASC, then do it later.
She is doing tennis this year instead of dancing so we pick her up a bit early and take her to it.
I prefer to have our weekends free - but I would like her to do nippers next summer which is only on a Sunday morning.
I also like weekends free - last swimming lesson of the day round here appears to be 5:30, and unless I can get altered hours then wouldn't make it for that one. The more I think about it the more sense it makes to not work 9-5 - the silly thing to me is that I work in logistics and most of the 'real' logistics work e.g. warehousing, delivering etc works more like a 7:00 till 3:00 day or slight variations on that - why IT companies are so set on this 9-5 business is beyond me.
I should be careful what I wish for, so fed up of work wishing for time off, now DD has Impetigo (school sores - I never heard it called school sores in UK) so can't go to daycare for 48 hours. So now I will be working from home tomorrow and possibly Thursday depending on DH. Saves me 2 hours driving, but I am not keen on working from home, the concentration required is not easy when even one of the kids are around. It must be very job dependent but always amuses me when work say can't you just work from home on if you haven't got childcare - mmm yes and what exactly are my 2 and 4 year old meant to do for 8 hours while I am tapping away on the keyboard. Yes a few hours here and there can manage with them around - but a days work - no chance - and I really prefer that if I am with the kids - I am "with" the kids.
Working from home can certainly work in some jobs, but I think those that can be done while also being responsible for children in the home are few and far between.
As I deal with payroll, most clients need their payroll done by 3pm, so it really works well with school friendly hours. Well that is assuming they are a client on the Eastern side of Aus
I find I can't work from home either. I get snappy at the kids. I can do a quick bit of research, but any data related work is too risky.
Occasionally one or both of the girls may come into work with me, but it is only ever for around an hour.
Nothing like a cuddle from DD after a hard day's work!
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