Honest Answers

[3adele3]

I have been a stay at home mum for 6 years and will be going back to work part time in September.

I wanted to know others thoughts, What would you say is your greatest parenting challenge being a stay at home parent, what is your greatest parenting challenge being a working parent?

1. finding a part-time job
2. retaining my sanity

Part time is the dream, its much harder working full time. I think you'll be fine.

retaining sanity in what way?

The only downside I’ve found to working part time is I don’t always feel as much a part of the team as some and it took me much longer to settle in than it would being full time. I like having a sense of identity outside of being a Mum, contributing financially and adding to my pension but it’s nice that I can do some school runs, have time off to do housework etc (unfortunately most of that does fall to me because DH works long hours). I do 3 days a week which gives a nice balance.

I used to find working PT that I didn't fit into any group. My 'mum' friends would arrange meet ups or days out, and didn't ask me as they'd assume I was working (I worked 3.5 days per week, so they were usually right). Nobody used to drop in or knock when passing to see if I fancied going to the park, as they would assume I was at work.

Work groups would always seem to arrange things on days I was at home Not always, but often enough that I missed out on a lot of stuff. And people would ALWAYS assume that I knew about arrangements. 'We discussed that on Tuesday'. 'I don't work Tuesdays.' 'Oh, I thought you were there. Sorry.'

So part time can be the worst of worlds, although it's great for work/life balance it's not great for friendships!