Full time working parents…. Is it that rare?

[Workingtoohardmummy]

I live in the midlands and just came back from my first parents consultation for my daughter who started reception, and I’m absolutely floored to find out that out of the 22 kids in the class, only three attend the after school club full time!! Which means that the majority of the kids have at least one parent who works part time/ doesn’t work. I’m absolutely shocked when the teacher told me because I didn’t think having two parents work full time is that rare, especially in this economy.

So I just want to find out… is it really that rare to have two full time working parents? I’m feeling awful about being one of the very few full time working mums in my village, as my daughter is missing the opportunity for play dates and park dates after school.

Nothing wrong with breakfast and after-school club every day though. We did that for a while and it worked well. You can also do full-time hours and still finish a bit earlier one day.

We used a childminder as we needed longer hours than the after school club could offer. Please don't worry too much

I’m from the midlands and I would say 80% of people of know whom have children both work full time.
Myself and DP both work full time but only use after school club 3 times per week as each will finish early and make the time up later in the evening which we are fortunate to be able to do with our jobs.

They might have childcare via childminder or family helping out. It is strange that you think nobody else works full time because they don't do the exact same thing you do 😄

Also we work full time but I finish in time for school pick up.

Tbh, I can hardly think of anyone I know with primary age children where both parents work full time. Most couples, the dad works full time and the mum is either at home or does part time hours. Some couples have both dropped to part time hours to share it out.
When our DS was in mainstream school, they didn't even have a breakfast or after school club. A few people used childminders for drop off and pick up some days though.
For what it's worth, we are in a Yorkshire town and I imagine it's very different with London house prices for example.

Lots of other options for parents working full time. You can't count from wrap around school care.

I think a lot of people who work from home pick their kids up and continue working for another hour or so while the kids play/watch telly at home.

Or use family/a childminder.

Going by the amount of grandparents dropping off and picking up at my grandchildren's school, there are a lot of children who have both parents working full time.

I only knew a couple of mums who worked full time but I'm going back 20yrs or so. Nearly all either became a SAHM or worked part time.

Statistically, the vast majority of women drop their full time hours after maternity leave.

Mine aren’t school age yet but both DH and I will be able to work flexibly around each other for pick ups and drop offs when the time comes.

Not rare but that doesn't mean that people have to use after school club. We have always worked full-time (kids are now grown up). My husband has always done shift work so when ours were that age he would pick them up from school one week, and grandma would pick them up the following week. I arranged my hours to be able to take them (started later, finished later) when DH was on an early shift.

Plus I do compressed hours (full-time over 4 days instead of 5) so was off one day a week anyway. Obviously they don't need collecting from school any more (just driving hundreds of miles to uni or back every so often) but I also now wfh one day a week.

Dh and I both work full time in the midlands. We don’t use breakfast club and use afterschool club rarely because we can work around each other to ensure he doesn’t need it. Almost all of the other parents either do the same as me / use grandparents / childminders / other parents for pick up / drop off.

I had no support either as a single mum when my children were young. I didn't use school wrap around care, I used au pairs and childminders.

Must be the area... in ours only one school in the four that we visited had spaces in ASC that could be reliably counted on. The rest were massively oversubscribed and unlikely to gather a place till Y1/Y2...

DH and I both work ‘full time’. But my boss is fine with me doing the odd school run or whatever as long as it fits in with my working day. DH is self employed and usually does drop off and pick up, he just works some evenings and weekends when he needs to catch up.

DS’ class recently had a trip and the parent volunteers were mostly self employed dads!

Yes. Loads of families have both parents working FT

I’m absolutely floored to find out that out of the 22 kids in the class, only three attend the after school club full time!! Which means that the majority of the kids have at least one parent who works part time/ doesn’t work

Massive leap there though.
So many other options.

Childminders
Family
Quite a lot of Nurseries pick up children from schools for wrap around care
Parents where one goes in early and leaves to pick the child up and the other goes in later to drop child off and works late.
Shift Workers
People who can work flexible hours
Families where one parent goes out to work when the other comes home

Plus, lots of children enjoy their after school clubs

I guess being a military family we just have to use full time wrap around care as we have no support around and my husband often goes away

Loads of other families at your school might work full time and need wraparound care as well, but they just don’t use the school club. You are really jumping to conclusion here.

I have found some stats that about 50% of families have both parents working full time (which doesn't quite match the other stats which suggested 40% of mother's work full time and 40% part time)

So I wouldn't say it was rare to have both parents work full time, but it's also not unusual to have a part time working mum either. It's unusual to have a sahm of school age children though - like 10% of families are like this.

It's just people flex their hours, condence their weeks, do shift work, have grandparent and child minders.

Not rate. But people could be using grandparents/ friends/ negotiating to finish one day early etc. We worked full time but did these things where possible

Why are you so bothered what others are doing? You do you.

This is the closest I could find - between 40 and 60 per cent of families have two FT working parents. I could probably average out the numbers but not this late. www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/familiesandthelabourmarketengland/2021

All kinds of arrangements including one parent starting at 6am and the other at 9.30 so no child care needed, grandparents helping etc

I'm equally shocked OP, it must be something specific to the British isles.

I'm from the continent, and from France to Ukraine, women and men work alike, full time as a matter of course

I would say the vast majority of DD's class use the wrap around care offered by the school, although I couldn't tell you how many days each child does per week. There are also a lot of childminders at drop off/pick up. We both work full time but DD only goes to after school club twice a week - we are lucky to get grandparent help 2 days per week and I set my hours at work to finish early one day. I also start later (but also finish later) on the other 4 days so I can drop her each morning.