To have two days a week to myself?

I was going to suggest this too - could you do one normal day (when your DH WFH) and then three shorter days? That would reduce the need for childcare, give you more time with your child but still leave you with a day off.

Or spread the hours over five days to save on childcare completely (ideally with the flexibility to do three full-days in the holidays, to save money on holiday camps).

No I don’t think YABU at all, it sounds like a lovely lifestyle. I’ve known so many women in my working life who have worked part time even when the kids are older so that they can keep on top of housework, food shopping etc and the weekends can be dedicated to family time.

It's not fair to make that assumption or assume he wouldn't prefer to work. Many men do. Many women carry men in every way except financially. DH and I could have both gone part time or he could have been PT while I was FT but he didn't want to, though he still pulled his weight outside work. Also I am the higher earner and could still earn a good salary part time. People need to find what works for them.

It’s not fair to expect your DH to carry you financially.

We both work three days a week, it isn’t something we would choose if it meant one of us having to work fulltime to fund the other. When our youngest starts school we won’t change our hours.

I am you OP!

i love it but to help with out of school club. I did change my hours to 4 short days so Monday off and 8.30-3 Tuesday to Friday which I found a good balance for keeping that one day off and school pick up.

I’ve never had any bad comments and if I’m honest I have no interest in working more hours. I’m very happy with how much I earn and if anything ever happens I know my work let me increase my hours easily.

For me it’s the perfect work life balance 🥰

You still haven’t said what your dh feels about this?

Especially when they are in reception it is useful to have some flexibility so you can do play dates, meet other parents. Plus getting on top of reading, homework etc. You can also ensure the chores such as laundry etc are done at home. If you go back to work full time then dh will need to split the chores more evenly. Or bring in extra help, so he might need to supervise a cleaner when they start on his wfh day on a Friday. Ideally also you should over pay a little on your pension to compensate for earning less.

Really it is a conversation between you and dh, if you are both happy then the other people's views are not relevant. If dh is not happy with you only working three days a week you need to sit down together and figure out what will look fair if you work full time in terms of division of supervising homework, household chores etc. Or perhaps it is something that you review on an annual basis.

Yes we also have a sport for our two youngest as well early Sunday mornings. They need ferried back and forth too.

YANBU! I have 1 day off a week, I work 30h, and honestly I'd love 2 days, we just can't afford it.

Life is so busy and overwhelming, I desperately need that 6h to function (I'm autistic) - if I had 12h my quality of life would massively improve!

If you can afford it, do it OP. 12h is not much!

I work 2 days per week term time and my dcs are at school, I get comments from people about how I spend my time on my days off but I will do what works best for my family.

Depends on your career. It would destroy mine, so it would be short term relaxing but long term stagnation.

I do 30 hours and that’s 2 days one week and 3 days the next covering weekend as well.
To me school days go very quickly and by the time I drop DD off, go food shopping, do housework, have something to eat it’s time for the school run.
My husband works compressed hours over 4 days also.
They also have 13 weeks holiday and obviously we don’t get 13 weeks annual leave and we like time off as a family. For our family it is more cost effective me working these hours.
For example half term this week. I am at work today (bank holiday) took 12 hours AL so i’m off the rest of the week…..zero childcare needed 😊

I work three days a week and my youngest started school last September, my mental health has improved no end having some time to myself, there's no point increasing my hours as we have no help with childcare and I'm only on just above minimum wage so paying for childcare would be daft. My DH has a better job than me and he's happy with the way things are (I do all the school runs)

I work 0.6 hours across 3 days and will continue when DC starts school in a couple of years. My employer wouldn't allow me to just increase my hours, as it was a lot of paperwork to reduce them after maternity leave.

It's absolutely nobody else's business if it works for you and your family, in terms of finances and time
I understand working because you have to or even because you want to, but I hate this mentality of looking down on anyone who works less hours (outside the home). You may well be happier and more available for your family, which can only be good.

I always worked 3 days a week when mine were younger. I still do 3 days a week now (FT over 3 long days) even though they are both at Uni. I would never ever willing work 5 days a week again.

I don’t see why not if you can afford it - life is for living, and when you’re at the end of your life I’d doubt you will wish for more time at work rather than more time with people you love or doing things that make you happy.

I’m a stay at home mum to a toddler but will probably never work again. I love being a mum and have plenty to keep me busy without paid work, both productive things for the family and things I do for my own happiness. My children going to school doesn’t automatically mean I’ll be rushing to fill the hours they’re at school with paid work.

Sounds great OP! I haven’t ever been on unpaid leave except my part-time days off when I returned to work after one year paid leave. I worked three days of a five-day working week. However financially we need two incomes so back to work full-time for me.

I will always look back on the part-time working week with happy memories. I had DC one of those days and then had one day for myself! It was a lovely balance.

Enjoy it.

Your mistake is to submit your life to anyone else for approval

YANBU OP. Enjoy your free time!

My friend (who has 2 older children than me) teaches 2 days a week and has 3 days at home whilst her children are at school. She’s had some silly comments from
colleagues about what she spends that time doing. She has plenty to do- washing, ironing, cleaning her large home, unpacking the food shop, driving round on errands buying birthday presents/picking up anything her family need, doing admin for her girls, etc. She also likes to run and actually watch some adult TV, and why on earth shouldn’t she, given that she can’t watch anything in the evening now they go to bed so much later.

You are free to spend your time off as you please, it’s up to you and your DH and you don’t have to justify that to anyone. Enjoy! 😊

OP isn't giving up her career, she's working part-time, seems ideal to me. Not everyone wants to work full time, especially to the detriment of their children

Please stop with "life admin" as something that you need time off to deal with.

I work 4 days with one day to myself and one in secondary. It makes a difference to holidays to have that day with dc but it's usually just good to have one day a week to shop when it's not the weekend and exercise. It's also one day a week I can do playdates.

Do it! You’ll see it’s actually not a whole lot of time as you’d likely be getting things done that are long overdue and running a bunch of errands/ doing chores so it’s not like you have your feet up for 10-12 hrs a week.

As I wrote above, I think you should do what is best for your family. However, I do think it is a shame in general that far too many women give up their careers when they have children, while men can pursue their careers and have children and no one thinks twice about it. If workplaces were more family friendly and quality childcare were more readily available, it would be better for everyone involved IMO.