Child starting school- should I work 5 short days or 3 longer days?

[Galaxygirl93]

I am wondering what is everyones experiences/preferences when it comes to either working 5 days school hours, or 3 days longer hours 8-6. I know this would depend on employer flexibility and everyones own opinion is subjective, but I am wondering if there is an overall majority leaning towards one or the other, plus any benefits/negatives I have not thought of..... for background I currently work Monday - Wednesday 8-6.

I work 3 days compressed 9 he days. Means I only pay 3 days childcare & transport costs.

My dh is able to drop off & pick up from childcare though

I managed to get four medium length days, that way I can do drop off and my son isn’t in after school club for very long and I still get an entire day to myself:

I would do 3 long days. I do 2 short and 2 long and I find the mental transition to from work to mum hard on my short days.

I would do 3 long days

For yourself I'd do the long days option.

However for your dc id do short days if it meant I'm more able to do the school run / go to school assembly's etc

3 long days - meaning if DC get sick there is a possibility of working extra days at another time/chance to catch up on work at home

Psychologically and in terms of life admin logistics three long days would be my preference but it does mean paying for childcare every week for years.

Worth bearing in mind that 3 days is cheaper for school holiday childcare than needing to pay for 5 days each week of the holidays.

Think it depends on the type of job you do. If everything waits for you to come back in again 3 days might be worse as the work will build up more on your days. I have done both and find more days, but shorter ones, easier as with being there every day I can keep on top of things better. But if it is the type of job where it doesn't build up when off then I'd go for 3 longer days.

In reception it might not be such an issue but as my DC have got older I've found more shorter days easier as I'm there for homeworks, afterschool activities, playdates etc. Though it does mean you are running constantly to work, to school etc, but saves us on childcare too.

I worked term time only 4 short days a week 9am-2:30pm so I was always there at school drop off and collect and all holidays. Worked perfectly. Civil service so possibly more flexible than private companies.

My favourite pattern for primary was 3 days (so 0.6 FTE) spread over 4 days, so I was there after school (jolly handy when they started being interested in clubs and a social life) and had one day to myself as well. I then worked 3 full days in school holidays, reducing the amount of paid holiday care we needed.

But I was lucky that household income meant we could afford that.

If I had needed to continue working full time hours, I would either:

a) do the school length day if I (or DH) could reliably do the drop offs / pick ups and knew how to find/afford cover in the school holidays
b) do the 3 longer days if we needed paid after school care, as the two more relaxed non-working days would definitely be worth it for me!

It depends if you can switch between them during the holidays. Only needing to find three days childcare a week during the holidays is definitely a plus.

I would stick to what your doing. Might fill you with dread on sunday but you getting your working hours out of the way at the start of week.

3 days. Then you get 2 days with DC in school holidays.
I do 3 days and it’s fab. 2 days to do drop off and pick up. Mentally it’s good to have some time to yourself and to get things done, meaning weekends can be family time.

I did 3 longer days when DS was younger and he used to enjoy playing at after school club. When he got to Year 5 though he just wanted to get home straight after school, he had more homework, felt after school club was a bit babyish etc. I changed to 5 short days after that.

I'm incredibly lucky that I work 930/230 5 days. And employer allows me to compress hours into 3 x fill days during school hols.
I've never paid for childcare tern time and only 3 days per week during hols (less the weeks I take as AL)
I've been around for all school drop offs and pick ups. I've been able to supervise homework and enable play dates. DD has been able to do as many after school clubs as she likes.

I'd do 3 long days. Then you have 2 days to sort out day to day chores like the laundry and batch cooking and 2 days at the weekend to spend quality family time (rather than being filled up with the chores that haven't been done).

I've done both and preferred 3 long days but I was very lucky to have family to do drop off and pick ups. It then meant that I had 2 days where I could just be mum, help at school if needed, sort the house out, get errands done and have a few hours to myself. I think it's a nice balance. 5 short days meant I was constantly on the go and trying to be everything all the time.

I did 5 short days when DS was in reception. It was ok but I was constantly rushing around and never had a moment to myself.

Changed to 3 longer days after that and it's much better. Two days for school pick up, housework and gym. After school club costs but mine have always enjoyed it.

Both my husband and I worked four days a week when ours were at nursery - when they started school we spread our hours out so we were doing two short days each and three long days, so we had four out of five pickups covered and one day in after school club. It made life much less stressful for us and it meant it wasn't a rush to get tea done the minute you got home either. We're still doing that pattern even now we've got teenagers and could go back to full time (though we don't have to rush back anymore) - they say they don't care that we're here when they are, but I think they secretly like to know we're pottering about while they're in their rooms.

In the holidays, we each took our short days off, so it meant we only had a week in the summer and a week at Christmas all together, but it did work out. Generally the short day person covered sick children too.

I manage a team so I do like to be in every day just to check in and keep up with what's going on.

3 days. Then during term time you have 2 days to yourself! But also the potential to
go into school on those days to help or to go to assemblies etc. And then during the holidays you have two days a week with the kids. Though my child was absolutely exhausted for the first half term, so if I could have temporarily done 5 short days then I would have.

I do 1 long day & 3 short days & 1 day off. I find a lot of the holiday clubs mirror a school day.

It depends how much travel you have. There is no point travelling an hour each way for 5 short days, but if you only have (say) 15 minutes to travel, I'd suggest 5 short days is great - you can then manage all drop offs and pick offs (and no term time childcare to pay for). I was fortunate that I did have an employer who let me work 5 short days in term time and 3 long days in holiday, but actually there are often holiday clubs that run school hours, so it doesn't necessarily cost more.

Work wise it's much better to be in every day so you can keep up - colleagues who worked 3 days always ended up having to do imperfect handovers and handbacks of their work, and tended to log in on days off just to see if there was anything they needed to know about. Plus they had more issues with important meetings falling on their days off.

Mine also seemed to be more likely to get sick at the tail end of the week. So not working Fridays was a lifesaver.

Three long days I'd pick. Less travel, easier for childcare, and probably easier for those you work with incidentally.