SAHM worrying about going back to work. Evening jobs?

[RiceOnABike]

I've been a SAHM for 4 years and my DC will both be at school from 2024. The thought of going back to work is starting to worry me already, I don't know how people juggle it! Particularly managing the school holidays. Initially I was thinking of jobs in schools, but I want to drop my kids off in the morning and pick them up after, and always be around for their sports days etc. I've decided that evening work is probably the way to go, as that way I can do it all year round and there will always be one of us at home for them whenever needed. Now I need to work out what!

I've never had a career (and don't want one), I've just done various admin jobs before having the DC. I would be happy with anything - supermarket, warehouse, hospitality. My only requirement is for it to fit around family life.

If you have a job like this, could you please tell me a bit about it?

I'm in a similar position I've been at home for over 15 years 😱 I'm not looking for work at the moment but I was thinking when the time is right about ring a lunchtime supervisor (dinner lady in my day!)

Some of the larger schools round here have 2 hour lunches so that makes it more worthwhile.

Term time only of course, and would fit around dropoff and pickup.

I know a mum at school used to stack shelves at night in the local supermarket-I think it was 12am-6am so she could always do school runs. She was always exhausted though!

Bar work? Babysitting?

What about care homes - night shift and then you sleep during the day when your DC’s are at school.

I would recommend working as. A virtual assistant.
I have a PA in South America who is around in my evenings so I can leave things for him at the end of my day and he picks them up and they're done by my next day. If you are happy to work evenings and have a computer then this opens doors.
I have a number of people who work all over the world. And time is not really relevant. Spend the next year making sure you have the requisite skillset and you are good to go.

Fire me a message if I can advise more

@RiceOnABike

Keep an eye out for the lunchtime positions at special schools. They are often employed for around 3-4 hours a day. I’ve worked in SEN schools with care enablers that have 10-2 hours. Or sometimes 11-2.

Check out the civil service, you can sometimes negotiate a term time contract for certain roles.

Some cleaning contracts for offices are evenings or nights

And I've definitely seen evening jobs for admin roles. Or if you havw secretarial experience, join a transcription agency and you can work from home with flexibility to do school runs

I worked as a casual general assistant in school kitchens. It meant I was always available for school drop offs and pick ups, there was work 99% of the time although you didn’t find out till the actual day, as you were basically covering whichever school in the area was short staffed that day.
The benefit was that you could also choose to have a day off whenever you wanted, so could still attend sports days or hospital appointments etc.
I used to work between 2-3 hours per day over the lunch period.
Maybe contact your local council school catering department ?

I used to be a teacher but our first 2 kids are only 13 months apart so the cost of childcare was impossible. I now work in a supermarket in the evening from 5 30pm. It works for us at the moment. It does involve working some hours every other weekend but I asked for evening hours again so doesn't really impact on our weekends too much.

do you drive and have access to a car? If so you could look at parcel delivery. I do it and it's classed as self employed, I'm given a number of parcels to deliver each day but when I do it is largely up to me, the only restriction is between 8am and 9pm. It's quiet for us at the moment (usual at this time of year) and I only do a small round, average is about 60 parcels per day which takes me just under 3 hours including collecting them and loading, and on those numbers earn inthe region of £800 for a 4 week month after fuel and insurance expenses.To add I only work 5 days aswell. There is capacity to work longer days if you choose to. I have child commitments and the flexibility is outstanding for that. In holidays I often slink kiddo in the car and take him so no holiday childcare to worry about !

Both DH and I wfh so school run and concerts etc are just factored in.

School holidays - when they were younger we used a mix if school club, other holiday clubs, GPS and annual leave. Now they are older (14 and 10) we don't bother with the clubs.

No need to get an evening job unless that's what you want.

If it is then supermarkets, care homes, maybe leisure centres etc are probably the place to look.