To be in a dilemma about full time vs part time work

I in education too. 4 days suited me too. Was told had to go back to full time. Staffing shortage . Even worse nxt year. Back to weekend working. Used to use my day off to.prepare lessons do could have the weekends free😫

I mostly did 0.8 for about 19 years, did 0.6 for a few years after the 3rd DC was born. I've finally gone back to almost FT (35 hours) but I do compressed hours and a small bit of WFH here and there, I also do shift work. I can manage now because the youngest DC is now in high school.

So I've only worked FT for about 2 years in total and I'm in my early 40's! I plan on staying on 35 hours for the remaining 25ish years of my working life.

Do what works for you!

I absolutely regret going back full time. Wish I could do a four day week but in education now so not really feasible unfortunately 😔 I'd take time over money any day.

I've found PT work to be a good balance as my kids have got older. They are college aged and high school and I've never worked more than 18 hours a week at any point.

I would struggle to up my hours even yet I think. Me being off just means that everything runs more smoothly at home.

I intend to go FT in a few years when youngest is 18. I'll be 44 at that point so still plenty of time to pay more into my pension etc.

To add, not sure how old your kids are but have a few friends who went back full time when the kids went to school then have dropped back to part time now they're teenagers as they felt they were more needed, especially after school.

Maybe do 4 days? Or 5 shorter days? I'm work .75 and it is a really nice balance. I don't think I'd ever go back full time and one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't go part time pre kids. For me it isn't even about having time to myself, it's that things never feel rushedso life is just calmer, we can do things after school and I don't find that we have to live for the weekend.

Contracted 37 hours a week. Generally do 40 or so. I’ll join a call on my non working day if needed etc. it’s really flexible.

Those of you who do a 9 day fortnight what are your hours?

Could you do 0.8? I’ve found that a lot of jobs/employers are open to 0.8 when they’re not open to less, so it’s a bit more practical to get on and up. Or compressed hours? Pre-kids I did a 9 day fortnight and it made a huge difference to my evenings and weekends - I could get so much admin-y stuff (bank, haircut, etc) done in that day that I really felt my weekends were my own.

Edit to add: my kids are still young, I’m part time at a similar pattern/earnings level to you and I cannot envisage going back to full time unless we got in to a really bad financial situation. For me it’s just too much.

I'd look at the difference in take home/between all the options, taking into account travel, need to buy time by spending more money as well as tax...

I haven't got any children but chose to fo 0.8 for me last year. Back to FT this year, not through choice ball ache

I work a full time 9 day fortnight now. So all the salary but I do all my hours in 9 out of 10 days. I’ve always worked full time though so have no concept on days at home when the kids were smaller!

I think that when you work full time you find ways of being more efficient so that you don’t need to do life admin in your spare time. Without wanting to sound patronising, I mean things like doing the online shop on the train, or other admin during lunch. Maybe if you use every 5 minutes efficiently then you can work FT and then be present when at home. I realise that can’t work for all jobs though.

How old are your DC? I do 4 days and plan to continue this throughout their time at primary school at the least.