Returning to work full time out of necessity

I am really struggling with the thought of going back to work full time. I have been looking for something part time for the last 3 months and there is nothing at all around. I haven't even found anything to apply for. It is now getting to the point where I need to work for financial reasons and full time is the only option left. I never intended to go back full time until my kids were quite a bit older (they are 3.5 and 11mths) and I just can't get my head around it. The thought of being away from my kids for 50 hours each week and only seeing them for an hour or two on week nights is just not something I'm ready for. I'm also not ready for leaving them in full time day care (which will take more than half of my full time wage!) It just seems like such a huge sacrifice for little financial gain. But, we're really struggling financially at the moment and I can't see another way.
How did you cope going back to work full time? Is it possibly not as bad as I am imagining or will I be completely miserable?

what field of work? can you just take up a parttime job in another industry for a while just to bring money in and keep your eye out for something you actually want?

(really should take a page out of my own book....)

I work in accounts mostly, so just after accounts payable/receivable or possibly payroll jobs. It's all I've ever done so I don't even know where to start if I was to look for something else.
Where I live doesn't help as I will have a minimum of half an hour commute each way. Before DD was born I was working 15hrs per week over 3 days but traveling 6hrs per week. It was costing a fortune in petrol and tolls. I think if I didn't live so far out of the city it wouldn't be so difficult to find something.

Whereabouts I Melbourne are you? I am in Sth East Suburbs and can keep an ear out for you.

What about Coles night fill or something like that? I've heard they pay $40 per hr casually....Not really a career but at least you won't have to pay for child care or perhaps travel as much

I'm in the dandenongs, so if you do hear of something, that would be great! Anywhere from berwick/narre, mulgrave, ftg, scoresby etc. :)
DH works night shift so that rules any night work out, otherwise I would be happy to do something like that.

I am in the same situation - my youngest is 17 months - I have been unable to find part-time work started looking in October (nothing is ever advertised have had a few leads by word of mouth through my network of old colleagues but nothing substantial - work in IT specifically SAP logistics). Now considering full-time but I tried after DD and hated it so negotiated down to part-time so that is the only reason I want to consider it so that I could get foot in door and then negotiate down to 3 days a week. I know what you mean about the financial gain too - I worked it out and I would have same amount left after childcare if I worked 3 days (my preference) as 5 - so when you really don't want to work a full week anyway then that makes it even worse.

Sorry hasn't really helped with your question about how you come to terms with it - I haven't yet and am trying to explore other options, but so many of the jobs like working for the supermarkets you have to be supremely flexible and as we have no family support here and rely on childcare then I can't do that I need to know my hours are set for each week so I can organize childcare or make sure DH is home (logistically for night-fill - if working at night when do you then sleep? as would need to be looking after the kids in the day?).

For full time work everything have seen so far requires you to be flexible to travel e.g. a fortnight away every couple of months in Perth or somewhere - which I simply cannot do - I couldn't leave them for two weeks. If I can find something full-time with no travel I may go for it and one of the ways I am trying to come to terms with it, is I would ship my mum over from UK put her up in a flat and she would have the kids 3 days a week and get them to daycare the other two - still cheaper than two in daycare full-time - and to be honest I think I would really struggle to get both to childcare and then to work in a timely fashion and feed them etc if I was working 5 days a week in the type of demanding environment often work in.

There was a couple of job sites actually recommended by girls on here in this thread - -Anyone-used-any-careers-services-for-returning-to-work
that might be useful to you if you haven't seen already - I am sure I have seen accounts jobs on them -Ethical jobs and Infoxchange


A company might be worth contacting is Randstad - I know where I used to work (actually where I used to work would have been perfect location for you but they offshored many of their accounting roles - as they are doing with IT too) they used them alot for accounts jobs - often short term fill in things but maybe part-time suitable.

I will definitely contact Randstad. I used to deal with them when they were Accountancy Link, many moons ago!
We are in the same boat with child care. Very little support near us and no one to call on for regularly looking after them, so I need to put them in day care which also means I need a job with consistent days.
I will check out that link as well... Thank you :) hopefully we will both find what we're looking for soon. :)

Hope you find something - the situation for mums wanting to return to work really does suck in my opinion (that other thread is full of my rants about it!)

I was back at work full time when my boys were each 12 weeks old. Out of necessity.

I had an awesome family day carer, and my dad helps out. That's the only way I could manage it. If I had to do long hours then dad did the pick ups and drop offs.

Even when I left XH when DS1 was 12 months old, I still had to work full time. Sure it's hard, but I managed.

I returned to work full time at the beginning of December when DS was just 6 months, also out of necessity. It was really hard that first week. All I did was think/worry about him ans really did very little work. But then it got a bit easier, I started getting involved in the work and I started to really enjoy the time out, hot coffees and adult conversations.

I do have the option of being able to work from home if DS is sick and I have found that a real comfort as I feel like I can still be there when he needs me.

I found a daycare centre that I was really happy with before he started as I knew they would never be as good as me LOL but at least I would still be comfortable with their standards when it got down to the nity grity and seeing how many sleeps & feeds DS was having there. We did 5 stay and play sessions (which apparently is alot) because I wanted DS to feel comfortable there and with the carers before he started.

Frustrated bubba here so gotta finish there - I hope you can work out something you are comfortable with. Good Luck

Are you having any luck Megan? - I have eventually found something - looking since October - in same field as before and is a mix of full-time/part-time - only a 5 month contract but should be good - I start tomorrow. I actually just found it on Seek, they were looking for full-time and only 3 months so I figured I could get my mum to over for that - but in the cover letter I put that I even if they didn't feel I was suitable for the role advertised that I was interested in part-time work and I know how often they might want an extra pair of experienced hands (I could see it was direct with a company and not a recruiter so thought was worth a shot). Well it turns out it was that part-time that got me the interview as they actually prefer having someone part-time for 5 months rather than full-time for 3 months (they didn't think would get people wanting part-time if advertised as such). I will need to do some weeks of full-time but mum is going to be here (or at least on call somewhere in OZ) for the extra couple of days so should work out really well.

So it can be worth applying for full-time but stating an interest in part-time particularly if the job isn't advertised through an agency.

When I returned to work after DS I went back full time for the first 4.5 months as DH was taking LSL at half pay, so needed the extra hours to help finance that. From an emotional perspective it was really hard the first few days, lots of tears (mostly me), but it actually got easier a lot quicker than I expected. I found I appreciated the quality time more with DS, rather than getting bogged down in the day to day of everything, all of a sudden every moment seemed so much more precious again. From a work perspective, as I had been out of the workforce for 12 months I was able to get back into the swing of things alot quicker working 5 days, but the time I went part time again months later, I had my head around the job and a real routine and results in place which were a great bargaining tool as was able to negotiate to work part time (4 days) with one of those from home, which meant I only went into the office Mon, Wed and Fri. I'm going back full time again for 4.5 months this time knowing that although emotionally it will suck for a while, there are benefits from working FT

I was able to find work 'to pay the bills' early in my pregnancy by hand delivering my resume and a cover letter to a number of places. The work wasn't in my field, but was close ish to home and although the work was at times boring, the people were lovely and i returned there between the two kids, and then got some project work that could be done from home after #2.
Cold calling was way outside my comfort zone, but it worked for me and gave us the money we needed.
Good luck.