WWYD work more or have more time with your baby? Maternity leave ending.

[ShiftHours]

I'm on maternity leave and I need to sort my hours going back to work. I work shifts and was hoping to do three days one week and two the next week (this is a mixture of week days, nights, weekends and bank holidays). However, I calculated the hours incorrectly (didn't take into account unpaid meal breaks 🤦‍♀️) so now I don't know whether to increase how many shifts I do or decrease how many hours I do. The difference is around £200 pcm so quite a lot but then adds another day I probably won't see my baby (well awake anyway).

As background I have a partner. Apart from the mtg and bills our finances are separate so what I work will not impact him at all if that is relevant?!

Normally I'm all for spending more time with baby, but with an unmarried partner you don't share finances with (how does that work when you have a baby together?), then I wouldn't work anything less than full time.

How long are your shifts? Who will your baby be with for that extra shift? I think you need to rethink finances if you are working less hours to look after your child. Assuming those are long days I would be tempted to work less if you can manage on less money as a family.

Yes would be good to know the shift hours

Have you factored in childcare? That is joint expenditure and you should consider it as it is expensive.

Personally, I would keep working the hours you did before. don't make yourself financially dependent on your partner. DP and I are not married and I have always worked full time because I know I have less security.

Ah thanks for the responses. Apologies they are 12 hour shifts. The childcare will fall between me, DP, my mum and DP mum. We can't do nursery as they are simply not open for long enough to cover both mine and my partner's working days. Both grandparents are happy to do so (and yes I know it breaches lockdown but there is no other options - neither of us can work from home).

I have no intention of being financially dependant on him. I can afford to be part time as my income is above average for our area.

I'd do more shifts, especially going into a recession post covid. Baby is with family who love him. Keep the job and make sure you are indispensable.

You only get this time when they’re little once. I work two long shifts a week (23 hours) and love it. I feel as though I’m barely at work and don’t get the awful exhaustion that I used to get working more. I also really look forward to the days I’m with my LO. I could easily have worked weeks of 2/3/2/3 but I figured I’ve got the rest of my life to up my hours and make money. For now we make do on a tiny bit less but I’m a happier and more present mum. I know I’m fortunate to be able to do this.

So if you do a 2/3 pattern that averages out at 30 hours per week. That's still a pretty decent amount of hours. Is it a job that it's fairly easy to pick up extra shifts, either permanently or bank work? You could do that later on if money was an issue. I'm basing my response on an assumption you have a job in something like nursing, where there is an ongoing need for staff and less chance of redundancy, plus it's very common for people to work different numbers of hours. Obviously this may not be the case.

I would do 3 shifts a week. You still have essentially 4 days a week with your baby, depending how shifts fall which is more time than a lot of people.

Even though I would be doing 12 hour shifts it would only be 10.5 hours paid. So I either pick up more shifts or do less hours so less pay.