How many hours did you work after going back from maternity leave?

[twoorthreeorfour]

My contract is changing to 3 days, 22.5 hours. I wondered what other people do. If you reduced your hours, at what point did you go full time again?

I wasn't judging. I'm a single mother. I would love the help with my kids. Doing everything on my own is hard especially when your third hasn't had a good start to life.

Of course there’s not always a partner. Very different to saying I want to watch my kids grow up, especially when it is almost always aimed towards mothers.

Things will never change if everyone ignores it.

Not for a defined benefit pension. It doesn’t matter how much I contribute, what I get at the end is already fixed.

None of our NCT group, my colleagues or friends went back FT with toddlers.
FT only kicked in once the dc's were at school.

I did two weeks on two weeks off (production editor of a monthly magazine) when I returned at five months. Second baby I had some medical issues and had to stop working about five/six months pregnant and never went back.
A few mums went back full time after first, part time after second.

try asking the pp who insinuated that working FT means you “miss your children growing up”.

i’ve seen too many threads recently where women post about going PT, sahm, or reducing hours citing “my wages don’t cover childcare” or “I want to see my children grow up” with absolutely no reference to the child’s dad or what he might want, or his financial responsibilities to childcare.

then however many years down the line they wonder how dad could leave the kids and them without feeling any kind of responsibility.

i’m more than aware fathers can be deceased, thanks. That makes what pp said even worse as single parents often don’t have the luxury of choice deciding whether they “want to see their kids grow up”. They may have to work, because no Child maintenance off a deceased person.

generally someone deciding to go PT to watch their kids grow up has that choice because they have a partner shoring up the financial side. Not all of us have that. Sometimes it’s women holding the finances together, or even holding the finances AND the childcare side together.

Sorry rant over. But people need to stop with this narrative that you’re a crap mum- and it’s only ever mums, never dads, if you work FT.

First time I went back part time after 3 month pp and then full time by 15 months.

Second time, I returned full time after 4 months. My husband stayed home longer with her.

This time, I've had twins and decided not to return. But I have been fortunate as my school is closing and I was able to take redundancy.

Only your circumstances can dictate what is right for you at that specific time🤗

Back full time straight away.

Was that the mothers or fathers who didn’t go back full time?

I'm a single mother. The dad doesn't pay anything towards the kids. I pay for everything.

Full time and used a childminder

I went back two full days, 14 hours. I looked at more but with what I was going to pay in nursery fees the net figure was about the same. When Dc2 started school I went to 3 p/t days 18.5 hours and when both were in secondary I increased to 30, 6 hours M to F in school hours. Both in their 20s and still working 30 hours, 830-230.

Why were you paying all the nursery fees? Assuming their dad is in the picture? Did he pay into a private pension for you to make up all those lost years of pension contributions by going part time?

The previous govt reduced the bereavement support payments greatly. Where previously payments were received until the child was 21 now the payments are received for 18 months.

I returned 2 days a week. Now 3 days a week a decade later.

Full time. Needed the money.

0 hours. I couldn’t wait to resign and continuing spending every beautiful moment caring for my baby 🥰

My advice- work as few hours as you can afford to. You won’t regret it 😊

4 days , 32 hours but 3 days from home.

His salary was paying the mortgage and bills. Neither of us thought about the pension side of things. My pension was non contributory then. Our mortgage is paid off and our pension forecasts look fine, we’ve some savings in the bank. I’m not worried about anything.

But you must be getting financial support via another means? You can't raise 3 kids on a PT wage?

I think the point being made is those that went back FT may not have a financial choice or other options available to them.

For women that were a significant part of the household income prior to children, that have partners and don't qualify for additional support, it's not as simple as staying home to watch them "grow up". Because if their income stops, that's it.

We always shared the childcare bill, but there have been points where if you deducted it from my wages, me working FT was only bringing in £500pm (before funded hours).

I don't regret working FT and "missing out"', because my family needed that money and we aren't entitled to any help.

It's great if people have the option to stay home more and can be supported to do that. What's not great is making out women who don't have that choice are missing out when in reality, they're just providing because they have no option to not.

I work full time but it’s 35 hours where I work and I was able to get a flexible arrangement to work full time in 4 days - my husband did the same so we had 3 days of childcare but both always worked full time.

18.5 hours.

So much judgement on this thread.

I couldn't imagine putting a 1 year old in nursery (or with a childminder) 50 hours a week.

That's my opinion, related to my own children. If others did do this then that's up to them. No judgement. Just I couldn't do it.

Also I have no interest in a career. I earn enough to pay the bills (with DH's wage too) and that's enough for us. We're not holiday people which is lucky as couldn't afford more than a week self catering in the UK but that's fine! Some of the people on here say they couldn't afford to go part time when they could, they would just have a drop in lifestyle eg. Less/no holidays - totally understand this too. It's just a difference in priorities.

I dropped to 4 days a week (30 hours) around 7 years ago.

I had no plans to go back full time and am now having baby no.3 so probably won’t go back full time for another 6 years or so x

I’m returning to work same hours as you OP. I have twins and the childcare costs are crazy! So won’t gain any more money working longer hours and also want to be home with my babies. If I had the choice I wouldn’t return to work until they were at school :( all the best with returning to work!

Yeah the 'I want to watch my kids grow up' comment isn't needed.

It's not a competition. Just as those who want to maintain their career which might mean working FT should be respected, those who drop hours and often take a lifestyle hit should also be respected. As should those who choose to stay home! Whatever works for your family. I think it's a sad for people who want to stay home but have to go back to work for financial reasons and I wish life was more affordable to give more women choice but as ever almost all mums do they best they can with the situation they are in.