4pm until 9pm - Family time - what job DOESN'T impact on this?

[MyOneandYoni]

I have always gone back to work after having my children, after the third one this was part-time only. However, now that they are growing up (all still primary aged) i'm finding that they need me more and more between 4pm and 9pm, but my job encroaches on this.
Can anyone recommend a job I could do where I could finish by 4pm? I don't mind what it is? What have other Mumsnetters done? Any advice gratefully received.

[claraagain]

You want a job that finished in time for you to be home with your children by 4pm? What time would you be available to start? Are you wanting to work weekends?

[ssd]

classroom assistant

[tippytappywriter]

Can you work more flexibly? Start earlier? Do any work after they have gone to bed? What line of work are you in?

[GlowWine]

Mine. Its a perfectly average job in IT but I work part-time reduced hours. Plenty of others I know do similar. Mostly office-based though.

[babygiraffe86]

I'm Monday to Friday 8-4, Friday is a 2:30 finish. Payroll in the construction industry does have its perks apparently :-)

[HainaultViaNewburyPark]

I work on Central European time instead of UK time. So I start at 07:30 and finish at 15:45. DH deals with the kids in the morning to make this possible.

[BestIsWest]

Yes, I work in IT. When DCs were younger I finished at 3pm every day.

[HarrietSchulenberg]

Teaching Assistant. Poorly paid but 9-3.50 and all school hols, obvs.

[MyOneandYoni]

Thanks - really useful. I love the sound of the payroll hours.
My DH leaves the house at 7am so can't help in the mornings but I can use the school breakfast club from 7.45 (but it costs £6 per child).
I'm currently working as a teacher but finding it increasingly hard to keep on top of all the extras. I don't mind getting into a non-teaching job as my DH is available in the holidays.
If it's not too much to ask, would those in non-education roles let me know a ballpark figure for salaries. I currently take home £15 grand (after pension etc, am 0.6) but am willing to work for less if I don't have to constantly feel guilty for not doing enough...
I find by the time they have done to bed (9ish) I'm really too tired to face two or three hours of planning etc.

[KeturahLee]

Teaching assistant, you'll be out the door at 3.30pm and doing no work at home.

[HainaultViaNewburyPark]

I take home around £40k per year after deductions (tax, NI, pension, share options, childcare vouchers). I'm a patent attorney.

You need to:
(a) have a degree in a STEM subject;
(b) train for a minimum of 3 years under the guidance of a qualified attorney; and
(c) sit lots of notoriously difficult exams to qualify (I was doing 15-20 hours revision on top of my FT job in the run up to exams).

So probably not going to give you extra time with your DC in the short-term.

[MyOneandYoni]

No!
I was looking for more of a can't-take-anything-home job, rather than retrain-with-every-fibre-of-your-being career!

Thanks though...

[SetTheWorldOnFire]

I'm assuming if you're earning £15k as a teacher, then you're PT. Have you thought about doing supply? No extras, or evenings, but you might have to do more days to make up for no salary during the holidays, etc.

[MinceSpy]

Lots of well qualified teacher are going the TA route. No lesson prep, parents evenings and term time only.

[forago]

definitely IT but yes, you need the Training, in case anyone looking at that. oh and the trade off is often evening and weekend work.

[CointreauVersial]

I work 9-3.

I started off doing a few hours a week of general admin when the DCs were young, and gradually increased my hours and grew my role. But I made sure I kept the 3pm finish. I do Sales, Marketing and Office Management for an Engineering company.

And my office is just around the corner from the DCs' school. Perfect.

[babygiraffe86]

Mine is hourly but makes up to be just over 16k. £8.10/hour. As I said it is construction industry which is why the good hours (2 weeks off over Xmas too but hve to save holidays for that) do payroll 2.5 days and the rest is hr kinda stuff, keeping training up to date, getting invoices posted general admin duties really :-)

[MyOneandYoni]

Thanks - really useful.
Yup - think I'm going to become one of those teachers who go the TA route...

[321Go]

Ha ha. I was going to suggest teacher as at face value it does fit those timings.
I leave work to pick kids up at 4 (only work 5 mins away) and then start again about 8.30 ish.
Mine are all primary age too.
The kids certainly have me between those hours but I always have work to do and regularly work until 11.30pm.
Are you secondary?
If so more creative timetabling might help - I don't work period 1 each day as I don't have morning child care (you could block out the last period instead). I have 1 full day off and finish early on one other.
My day off is spent working for at least 3 daytime hours and then the evening too though.
Dog walker? Mine is overworked and looks a fab job!!!!! I'd love to have my evenings to myself. Good luck!

[BackforGood]

If you are already working 0.6 though, then does that not mean you are already at home 2 afternoons (on your non-working days) - I don't think it's unreasonable for your dc to understand that you aren't able to pick them up until 5.30 or whatever x 3 afternoons a week.
When I was teaching 0.6, I did most of my prep work / data analysis / report writing / schemes writing / etc.etc. on one of my non-working days, therefore leaving most of my evenings free, or at least free-er once I left school. Can you not do that?

[Chchchchanging]

Would supply teaching give you the ave wage but without the prep?

[BestIsWest]

Yes, agree that in IT you will often be on call or have to work at the weekends but these days that is usually from home.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Most people I know with school hour friendly jobs work in some sort of office based role (accounts, admin, in my case quality assurance) on reduced hours. Or work as a TA or in a pre-school, those are poorly paid though. The office type jobs very much depend on qualifications/experience though.

[Mostlyjustaluker]

My sister makes teaching nearly fit around these hours but she world from 9 to 12 6 nights a week to make it fit and and obviously that is from 8.15 to 4.00 and the occasional late night.

DH is a software engineer and again he would work those hours if he choose to work from home and take no breaks and work again after kids gone to bed to make up for the fact he can't it a full time job in between 9 to 4.

What qualifications and skills do you currently have?

[Lovelydiscusfish]

My husband is self-employed - has his own internet selling business. His hours are very flexible, and he works far fewer hours than me for quite a bit more money (I'm on senior leadership in a school). Jealous does not begin to describe my feelings!
He did have an existing area of expertise before he started the business though - in some ways it is quite niche.