To think that there are no well paid family friendly careers?

Generally you would need a decent degree as a minimum, and what the PP isn’t telling you is the time it takes to get to that salary (SCS1 I suspect, 12-15 years is not unreasonable from entry and fast track schemes don’t advance you much on those timescales unless you are truly exceptional ) especially if you are not an already qualified technical expert.

But If you are asking for a career long game, then it could work. Entry is typically as an HEO, maybe SEO but that salary would be less than the average for a FT teacher. Some departments, or department functions are more family friendly- Westminster I would say is significantly less so, as a senior you have significant responsibility to Ministers and days can be long with early starts and late finishes. It is also stressful!

You would be better off looking at an arms length body I would suggest, who deliver locally and have more regional presence. There are many in Gvt: Homes England, HMRC (regionally, can be very family friendly) Network Rail, Environment Agency. Your PR background could help you in a comms type role, I would maybe look to start there.

I would just warn though OP, that it is the most competitive I’ve ever seen it at the mo, hundreds applying for each role. You will be up against young hungry graduates with experience to boot.

As you don’t seem to necessarily need the money, have you considered getting some modern recent experience under your belt, eg in trustee or NEDs roles for small local charities? You could really demonstrate a difference there and help you springboard into evidencing the competency base required for CS.

But she will still feel that the entry salary for most jobs will be paltry in comparison to her husband's (at least to begin with) and would need to swallow that pill eventually.

This, always this

On behalf of (most) lawyers….May I, on behalf of a lot of us say, please don’t. There are far easier and more enjoyable ways of earning a living. I’d be hard pressed to find you a lawyer who would do it again with what they now know

OP do you have good A-levels & degree from a highly ranked uni? Because most of the things being suggested on here (law, accountancy, financial advisor roles) are typically competitive graduate roles. If you haven't done a degree already there are apprentice roles but they are highly sought after and are fought over by the absolutely best candidates. There are also far more of these jobs available around London and while a day or two wfh is common, you couldn't do it living 300 miles away.

"It took me 5 years of doing all the grunt work noone else wanted, showing up to everything and generally proving myself to get what I wanted. It's highly unlikely you will be able to walk in to what you want without a few years of doing the same."

Agree with this. My thinking though is that if OP is thinking of doing a uni course then she is already setting herself up for 3 years of limited/no earning power so may as well just do 3 years of grunt work instead.

I think the key is where does OP want to be in 5/10/15 years time. Sure, anything around 30k may seem not worth it within the next year, but does she want to be in the same position she currently is in in 5 years time or would she rather have a career at that point earning her desired 50k+?

But yeah, highly unlikely she will swan into a 50k/yr (FTE) part time, flexible job in a new career, especially after a career break/change.

It may just be that OP needs more time for the kids to grow up and be more independent before reentering the job market, which is fair enough if she doesn't need the money. But she will still feel that the entry salary for most jobs will be paltry in comparison to her husband's (at least to begin with) and would need to swallow that pill eventually.

Not true. There are companies that offer a lot of flexibility irrespective of the industry sector I think. I am in Banking and although I raised my two as a single working mother (no family help or help from the father at all) when things were far less flexible (they are 28 and 24 now), I see family friendly flexibility as the norm now.

We would all go for an 85k flexible job if it didn’t require qualifications and experience.

I have this kind of role in Compliance. I earn 50k for a 3.5 day week from home and loads of flexibility.

I was a teacher previously, then had 5 years off when my kids were small. I had no qualifications in Compliance but took a very basic role in a small company. It took me 5 years of doing all the grunt work noone else wanted, showing up to everything and generally proving myself to get what I wanted. It's highly unlikely you will be able to walk in to what you want without a few years of doing the same.

Ime no not really. Ive never known anyone go through the accounting or tax training contracts part time. You have to be able to commit to the college schedule and hours can be longer in busy periods.

Also getting an accountancy training contract is very competitive at the moment. Post covid and with AI since they have really cut junior roles.

Generally speaking its much more likely you can ask for part time as an experienced senior professional in your existing field than as a trainee in a new one.

This is a very real problem and one which feels as if it is ignored.
I think you need to work out what you want to achieve, is it more money or is it your own feeling of self worth, usefulness and mental health. The decisions you make might be influenced by the motivation. If you stay at home too long you risk damaging yourself esteem and life satisfaction. If you take a job without flexibility you risk stress and not feeling you are doing anything right.
You could think about volunteering in third sector, advice giving role possibly. Training is usually quite structured and you are well placed to apply for paid roles. Often also local which means short commute which increases flexibility. Pay not brilliant so this is a suggestion if your main motivation is yourself rather than money.

I'm in law. 4 days wfh and generally quite family friendly i.e. i go to school assemblies/sports day using my lunch or flexing into the evening but that's not every boss or firm. I've been qualified 10 years this year and there's just me & DD in the week. XH does eow. I still rely on my parents as travel/overnights are expected for conferences/client visits/certain training events but you would plan your own diary to extent. I know someone with 2 kids going into accountancy - doing exams atm.

The difficult part is that DH’s career completely dominates everything. He works away a lot and at short notice so I’d have to work around this. This is non-negotiable - DH couldn’t not do this

This is your problem. Lots of careers allow more flexibility now, either early finishes or part time work, including many well paid jobs. But the assumption is you're sharing the childcare load with the children's other parent, not that you are going to constantly be second string.

Also - when you say early finishes, do you mean "stop at 3pm to collect children from school" (eg because you don't want to use childcare)? Or "be able to finish at 4.30 to be able to get home in time to collect from wraparound"? The latter is much more reasonable than the former. Trying to fit any sort of professional job into 9.30 til 2.30 sorts of hours only really works if its a 50 50 job share -you can't really sustainable commit to working 3 hours every evening after children get to bed, its just not workable, you'll be tired and none of your colleagues will be around at 9pm.

I work in the NHS as a healthcare professional and earn about 32K working part time. But I was already >12 years qualified when I went on maternity leave with my eldest and came back to the same role.
For a newly qualified (Band 5) in the profession, a part time role probably wouldn't be considered when you are competing against people who all want full time jobs.
Being a bit disillusioned with the NHS in general recently I had started looking around for new jobs but realised that I'll never find anything else that pays as well as my job for the same hours, especially if I'm starting somewhere new.

Data analyst/data engineer/analytics engineer - not too hard to get to 100k per year with a lot of flexibility on working hours (as long as you have the aptitude).

I work 4 days a week, am free to skip meetings if I need to or make up hours if called away by childcare. Took 7 years to get to 6 figures. Took about 4 years to get to 50k.

Other allied roles like data protection officer and product/delivery managers can also easily get to 50k if you have the right aptitude and are able to get onto the first rung of the career ladder.

Ditto software engineering, although you may have to be on call for incidents down that path.

I've seen some people use customer services / customer account management to make some really strategic sideways moves into more interesting and lucrative roles (e.g. into product/marketing/data roles)

Surely you'd want a role/career in something that you are 1) interested in and 2) good at. The idea that you expect to just start into an industry at 50k+ working flexibly when you haven't even demonstrated 1 and 2 at the very least is not a very good start...
And yes Id say most self employed roles would require some experience first. I wouldn't been giving responsibility of my account to a self employed accountant who qualified yesterday, that seems to go without saying.

A lot of industries can be flexible but it is about your specific employer as well as your own abilities and commitment to the role. I work in law. My role is very flexible but that's because I am extremely committed to it, will get the job done in the end no matter what and I do it to a high standard. It is a balancing act. And as others have said your definition of family friendly may be different to mine for instance. For me it's about being able to be available for parents evening, activities, competition, hospital appointment etc. it doesn't mean working 20 hours a week without putting any effort in or late nights as needed. And I do travel for work but then my husband picks up the slack because we don't value ones professional development other the other.

Become a therapist of some sort. You can earn fortunes and it's very flexible. I have a friend who trained as a hypnotherapist. She makes €100k a year full-time and works out of a space in her home.

I think career changing at this point in life is not family friendly. You would be starting from scratch again and need to put the hours in to work your way up.

I upskilled in the career I was in and it was still hard but has meant that whilst I’m full time, I have a lot of flexibility and predominantly WFH on a high salary, with higher than average annual leave. I no longer sacrifice my career for my partners, his is not more important than mine so we both cover school runs and child related tasks. I couldn’t work in a senior role if I put his job first each time.

I usually have 6 or 7 a day, which is a mix of day care and boarding. No, I don't have a cleaner. The dogs and me stick to 2 rooms - the kitchen and the dining room next door. Got laminate floors that can easily be steamed. They never get upstairs, there is a dog stopper on the bottom step. I've got 4 here today - they are all fast asleep and won't wake up till 3pm for food and walkies. In the meantime, I can watch TV, mumsnet, sit in the garden etc.

Also glad to see you have discounted teaching as an option if flexibility is important to you. I gave up a teaching career after 13 years due to realising how not family friendly the job was. I missed out on a lot in the first few years when I tried to juggle it all. Such a shame as the profession is losing female teachers in the same position as me at an alarming rate!

It’s not about the job, more so the industry / company! I work as a finance director and have huge flexibility. I attend all school events and extra curricular etc… of course I ultimately have to do my work, so I often work late or start early, but I work flexibly around my children.

How many dogs do you have in your home, though? Do you have a cleaner?

I know a lot of people in in-house legal teams, mostly in financial services, who earn very well and who also have a high degree of flexibility...but they've all been there, done it, and got the T-shirt. Really it's a matter of 'Flexibility, high pay, no experience required - pick two'.

I do home dog boarding and daycare in my home, and it pays me very well, around £50k p/a. I only take well behaved small dogs. I have no commuting costs, I'm at home all the time. It's a doddle tbh. Overheads are only £300 a year, which is the cost of my licence and my insurance. I love the freedom. Once I have fed and walked them in the morning, I have hours to myself. I then feed them and walk them again around 3pm. Then the daycare ones start going home around 5pm. No boss, no stress, no deadlines.

SEN tutoring, can be flexible and we'll paid if think you have patience to teach. My friend did this with no higher education but had a previous career in the arts.

You also have to think if youre moving away from the work youre experienced in, you might struggle to enter at £50k+