Anyone found that working full time when you have primary aged child isn’t that financially viable

[Kittencuddle]

So been sahp for years
do voluntary work and have a busy and full life
dh in high salary so no benefits etc

anyway a job has come up with the organisation that I volunteer for
it not well paid 25-27k per year
but I think it would be really enjoyable

ds in year 4
well half way through year 4

so he would need to go to before school club and after school club
I think this is over 20 quid a day
maybe around 25ish ?

id need a second car and it’s a 50 min drive each way
so no idea how much petrol is use a month ?
it’s Mon to Fri 9 -5
so even getting back to collect from after school at 6 could be right if there’s any road accidents etc
plus in holidays
I guess I’d have to use holiday clubs or child minder

so I’m just wondering how financially feasible this is

dh sometimes works from home but it’s not reliable so I’d have to have a child care plan in place

You would be better off but after costs and deductions and petrol etc maybe to the tune of 12k a year- depends if you need it or think it's worth it- would certainly improve your CV though and probably good for your sense of contributing . If you think you would enjoy it I would take it

That might be a bit more if I’m able to find anywhere to cover the hours

Sounds great.

So for me, one child roughly costs £14.50 a day in wraparound x39 x4 days = £2262 . We then split our leave so I’d need around 5 weeks of holiday club @45 a day which is £900.

Assuming you’re on £27k paying 10% pension you’d take home around £20k a year so even allowing for slightly higher costs re 5 days versus 4 days you’d clearly be financially positive.

I do.

That last bit.

Very, very important.

Is your teen a possible back up, so if you are delayed on occasion they walk to wraparound care and get your younger one?

when our younger one was in ASC, the older was allowed to collect, though typically we got another ASC parent to do it if there was a major train delay etc. I think DS1 only did it once.

Op I'm slightly surprised that you don't already have access to a car in the daytime.

You've said the job is a 50 min drive so I'm assuming you don't live in a major city or public transport might be an option?

The ‘male workspace’!!!! I’ve heard it all now. Husband and I both work for investment banks. Both in senior roles, we are both entitled to the same flexibility and take an equal share in family admin/school stuff etc. because we are a partnership. I don’t know if you are male or female but I’m saddened that you don’t feel women, or as a pp said minorities or anyone with a disability shouldn’t be afforded the same rights. You should be asking yourself what it takes for women to succeed despite the adversity that many face due to costly childcare and regressive attitudes.
I’m retreating now into my female headspace to weep at this thread!!!

Yeah I have pension provision I also have a sizeable inheritance that I’ve never touched so please don’t worry about that

i do have access to a car in the daytime now well 90 percent of the time
which is fine for my volunteering as it’s flexible in a way ft employment wouldn’t be

I was earning £20k when my eldest started school, by the time he started high school I was earning £65k, I also have an excellent pension. I dread to think what it cost breaking it down like you have, we took out a loan for a second car, I was commuting 100 mile round trip a day, childcare, on paper it would have seemed pointless, but it depends what you want out of life I guess? It wasn't long before I was experienced enough to find something more suitable, then something much more flexible, and now something much more financially lucrative. I guess it's all about your mindset, if I'd have viewed it like you do I would be very much starting from scratch now, I'm very glad I'm not.

teen leaves school later so couldn’t do pick up

If you think it’s enjoyable then do it. The childcare is a family cost.

OP if you don't need the money because your husband is a high earner and you have a pension, house and inheritance...why are you measuring this in terms of finance? Either you want to work or you don't, if you don't need to, then you only need to work out if you want to?

Because I suppose there’s always fun ways to spend more money on things like holidays etc
andi don’t want to be worse off I’d rather wait till he’s in secondary than do that

the second car thing makes the cost much harder to predict

I work because I want to be paying into my own pension and be independent should my relationship break down.

What we didn't see coming was my husband receiving a chronic diagnosis which started to affect his work. He has been able to reduce his hours (because I work so our budget could absorb it) which has meant he can continue working. I think if I wasn't working, he might have lost his job as he was having so much time off sick. Now he is rarely off sick with his condition as he has more time to rest working part-time.

Because I suppose there’s always fun ways to spend more money on things like holidays etc andi don’t want to be worse off I’d rather wait till he’s in secondary than do that

Take home pay on £25k with 8% pension contributions is about £1600 a month, if you're spending more than £1600 on wraparound childcare (at £14.5 a day) and a second run around care, you're doing something wrong.

It might be @Kittencuddle that this job you've seen doesn't work for you now.

It is realistic to look at wraparound and car costs as well as the feasibility of managing drop offs and pick ups. Do check what your local holiday club timings are too, ours aren't brilliant hours.

I work a lower paid term time (mostly) role as the salary is actually worth more to us as we don't have to pay lots of holiday club fees and I can do drop offs and pick ups (although my husband does do 50%). I plan to move into a year round 9-5 role in a couple of years when my youngest starts secondary school and I won't need wrapround or holiday clubs. By then I would have had 7 years working after returning so I hope I'm in a great position to get a new role with relevant recent experience.

OP, the salary doesn't sound too bad (particularly if you've been away from the workforce for a number of years), and it looks like you'd only have to fork out for childcare for another 2-3 years. You'd not be on much less than me (I'm on £33K, working FT, lone parent). How far away is the job? I know you said it was a 50 minute drive.

How economical the fuel costs are would of course depend on the type of car you had. The cheapest (for fuel costs) cars I had were a Peugeot 206 (petrol) and a Kia Ceed (diesel). Both were very efficient. Both cars I used for long commutes and were very reliable.

Childcare is costly, but luckily a lot cheaper once kids are in primary school. It might be worth having a look and seeing if the childminders near you would do early starts/later finishes to make a 9-5 more viable. I drop my DD at breakfast club which starts at 7:30. I pick her up at 6/6:30 from after-school club. £3.50 a day for breakfast club. £19/day for after-school club (but they give a snack and a cooked meal).

If it's a job that you feel you'd enjoy doing, then go for it! The pros would be that you'd be paid to do something you enjoy, you'll have building up NI contributions, work experience etc (I know you said you have a house, saved an inheritance and have a private pension already), and that job might lead to good career progression/pay rises/promotions. I think you're in a really lucky position though, because you don't HAVE to go out to work. SO it's quite nice to be able to pick and choose the job you want. If you start working and decide a few months in that it's not working out, then you can always go back to your voluntary work :)

FWIW, my DC have only ever known me to work FT - that's because I've had to. There were times (when they were really young) that I was barely breaking even due to childcare being so costly. I'm very glad I stuck it out though - it's given me good career progression and it saved my butt when XH walked (although he didn't bloody work in the final few years of us being together!!). My DC are (so far!) happy, well rounded kids. They enjoyed going to their childcare settings too (lots of kids to play with, lovely staff, great facilities).

Good luck though, whatever you decide!

So basically OPs DH earns in excess of £100k, she's got plenty in bank, possibly mortgage free and is dithering if £27k is worth working for?
Most definitely first world
problems 🙄

Agree with this. I am in a similar position in many ways in that I don't technically need to work financially - DH a high earner, I have pension plus inheritance and a chunk of savings, my work involves putting Y5 DS into wraparound care - but I do need to work for my self esteem and mental health and to feel I'm making a contribution to something outside of my own family.

I was a SAHM for years and enjoyed it but had reached a point where I needed more. It's also been really good for the DC to see me working and not just in the background running the home and doing stuff for them.

Only you know whether you really want this job OP but it is about more than just the financial breakdown. As others have said you've got a couple more years of wraparound costs and then DC will be at secondary. You need to think longer term than just 'is it worth it now'. I have friends who at one point were actually paying to go to work when DC were small, but it's paid off over the years in terms of career progression, promotions and so on.

Of course it's financially viable. For most people it's not financially viable not to work despite childcare and travel costs.
It really comes down to whether you want to work or not. If you don't want to and don't need to then don't. Or maybe look for something part-time instead. With only one child in wraparound care there shouldn't really be a financial barrier to returning to work if that's what you want to do.

You sound quite self important and naive – everyone, man or woman, faces those demands 😂 If your organisation doesn't offer you enough flexibility, it's not necessarily an indication of how time sensitive and high level your work is. More often it's an indication of your position further down on the hierarchy, and the relatively smaller scale of your organisation.

I scaled down my job loads to look after 2nd DC as complex needs. But with 1st DC, husband and I were both higher earners and we figured if we both exercise our inbuilt job flexibility (and took many calls in the car too 😂), even if we both took a small hit re: future progression, 3-400K joint salary would still be better than the upper limit of DH's salary if he worked like a madman.

Clearly this is not the case here but the whole "male workspace" thing obviously makes no sense in many contexts. I'd say there are plenty of high earning women but maybe not in your circles?

Also lol at posters literally posting every few hours over the course of the entire day how important and busy and big their job is. If you have that much time to fuck around on Mumsnet, go take 5 mins to help out with childcare?

As for OP's actual question, PPs framing it as moral/emotional willingness is ridiculous. It's a job, not a marriage. At least work out the net sums first – as she's doing – and then see how all the non financial tradeoffs and benefits stack up against that. That's only sensible.

What's career progression in this sector like OP? If it turns out you're technically paying to go to work these few years, will it be worth it in future eg exponential pay rise, or not really?