Applying for ajob 22 hours a week. If I have the choice what days/hoursshould I do?

[nymphadora]

AFAIK it's a new post and it's somewhere that's fairly flexible about days/hours but the working day will mainly be 9-5 with 30 mins for lunch.

It's v near home & I'm hoping to get home to feed/express for dd3 in my break so possibly doing 45 min lunch. My older dds are at school but dd1 will be a secondary next year :( and won't need me around much. Dd2 will need me for school run for a bit longer. Childcare will be dh or my mam so school run/clubs/dd3 won't be an issue if I can't do them.

So any suggestions?

[ChasingSquirrels]

I think your dd1 will still need you around even when she goes up to secondary - maybe not the school run, but the being around.

I do 20 hours - Mon to Thu 9am - 2pm, so I get to drop my boys at school (8.45am) and pick them up (3pm).

When ds1 was tiny I did 22.5 hours over 3 days (8am - 4.30pm, 1 hour lunch).
When my childcare arrangements because such that I could spread this over 4 days I did, and have kept it like that (with a few tweaks) ever since.

Personally I much prefer it.

I also have a very flexible boss, so in the holidays I sometimes do 3 full days and have 2 days off with them.

[ChasingSquirrels]

if you had a long commute then squeezing it into less days makes sense.

I used to have 30/40 mins each way, and now have 10 mins each way - which makes it easier to spread the hours over more days.

[nymphadora]

It will be about 5 min on foot

Current job 45 min away with often working to 7/8 pm hence the change.

It's school run I meant re dd1 & chauffeuring to clubs etc as some of hers at the moment are at the secondary school & I have to take her!

I'm torn between dd1/2 & school run and dd3 & baby/toddler groups etc.

[nymphadora]

Bump

[ChasingSquirrels]

depending on how far school for dd2 is, you could probably fit those hours into 4 school days - leaving you with one day free to do baby group with dd3.

Or, given you currently do long hours, maybe 1 long day when you use some form of before/after school care and 2 shorter days where you don't need to - leaving you 3 full days.

[nymphadora]

5 mins to school!