to think teaching isn't the idea career for mums?

[alisunshine29]

I'm studying for a degree at the moment and had planned to complete my PGCE afterwards but since speaking to the mum of DD's friend I've changed my mind. She's a teacher at the same school as her daughters and they go to breakfast club from 8 and after school club til. 6. She said they are in bed for 7 and then she has a couple of hours more work to do every night, plus a days worth at the weekend. She gets to attend nativity etc but only because they're at the same school otherwise she'd miss those events. AIBU to think a 9-5 job might actually be more practical?

My mum was a teacher when I was school age and it worked brilliantly.
It is an absolutely perfect job for a parent.

"maninawomansworld" the only sense in which it is perfect is the holidays. DH and I are both teachers and the time together as a family is absolutely brilliant, but termtime is a nightmare. CM called at 8pm yesterday to say she is sick so I am off this morning and DH is off this PM so we can each teach some of our classes. Setting cover work from home when you don't have the text books etc with you, can't photocopy sheets and so on means that the poor sod who gets the cover lesson will have a nightmare extra class that they have to try and teach in a subject they likely don't know much about. Little of value will get done and I will have to pick up the pieces when I get back. Classes don't just sit in your inbox for a day, they have to be dealt with and being off in these circumstances is a total nightmare. DS starts school in Sept and I have no idea if DH or I will be able to be there for that as it will be our start of term also. Only if you have a sympathetic head can you get to see things like plays and awards assemblies. Most of this also applies to "normal" 9-5 jobs also of course, there are few jobs that ideally fit with young kids, that's probably why women didn't have them for so long! I'm all for equality, and would happily let DH be a SAHD if we could afford it, but lets not kid ourselves - working parents are effectively doing 3 jobs between 2 people (or 2 jobs between 1 in the case of lone parents) and its never going to be ideal.

I'm a part time teacher and find it fits in well with being a mum. As a single mum I am skint mist of the time but get lots of time with ds.
I would recommend being a teacher, if your heart is in it you will enjoy it. It's very varied too which I like. However I would not want to be ft with a little one as I think it would be too stressful because of workload.
Good luck with your choice.

Tell your friend she doesn't have to find and pay for childcare through the school hols. She what she would think of only having four to six weeks hols to spend with the children rather than thirteen weeks. What does she think parents who work 9-5 get home after a commute.

Watching this thread with interest to find out the "ideal" job for a mum!

As for 9-5, you can still find lower level office/admin work with those kind of hours, but IME if you're remotely ambitious about achieving responsibility and a higher salary, you can forget about working 9-5!

Oh there are masses of bastard-useless generalisations on this thread. Ceeveebee, you cannot seriously write something like 'stress-free 9-5 jobs only pay about £15k' as a statement of fact, it's ridiculous.

I don't think any job is 'ideal' for parents - it's always going to be a compromise re money, time with the children etc. With teaching you get the holidays but term time is just a relentless slog and you lose your evenings and weekends, which for a lot of people are crucial for winding-down and relaxing. I suppose a lot of it depends on how you work best - do you prefer to knuckle down and do loads in a short space of time and hope you make it with your sanity intact to the next breathing-space? Or do you prefer to do things at a steady pace with less pressure?

Wheredo - that's why I used the word "probably"

Based on my experience of running a finance department employing 60 people, the only real 9-5 jobs paid £18k and that is central London.

No - in your circumstances it makes a lot of sense to do your PGCE in a few years time - both that year, and your NQT year are huge amounts of work and hugely exhausting without a baby in the mix. IME both PGCE course, and schools welcome older, more experienced people into teaching.

I can't be the only > £40k a year earner who finishes work for the day at 5 and doesn't give it another thought until 9am. Surely my situation is the norm. I'm good at my job, but I do it to live, not the other way round. I enjoy it but don't ever need to put in any more hours than I am 'supposed to' as it were.

Where you aren't, I do the same. I may check work emails on my phone but I never deal with them. My job really is 9-5. Well more like 9.30 - 5.15 but that is splitting hairs

Not at that sort of salary, WhereDoAll, not the norm at all.
there was recent thread on here about hours that folk work and few working FT worked a mere 37.5 hours/week. Certainly not in a job that could be described as professional.
DH is only in the office 8 hours but he's on call 24/7 and does lots of bits and pieces at home, too.

Even the dinner ladies & cleaners up at the school work 25% extra over what they're paid.

Actually,there was a recent thread asking whether people worked over their contracted hours and the vast majority said no, or only in very rare circumstances. I was really surprised.
So it seems it depends when / how you ask.

See, completely opposites in two posts. To hard to generalise.
I'm very glad I no longer teach, that's all I can say.

*too hard... Sorry

Am I the only teacher who found that after a couple of years of teaching, building up resources, becoming more efficient etc you can have free evening, leave at 4pm; it is not always all that hard; there are so many resources on the internet, departments have schemes of work. Goodness.

Probably Amykins, certainly not me

I can't be the only > £40k a year earner who finishes work for the day at 5 and doesn't give it another thought until 9am. Surely my situation is the norm. I'm good at my job, but I do it to live, not the other way round. I enjoy it but don't ever need to put in any more hours than I am 'supposed to' as it were

You're not. I do read emails on my phone, and I'm on call one weekend a month but have never been called out and very rarely work more than an hour or two over my contractual 37 hours. I don't work at weekends or when I'm on holiday, I use all my leave and I am able to work flexibly around the needs of my family. I don't earn a fortune, but at >£50k, I'm happy with my salary and wouldn't want to sacrifice my work-life balance for a bit of extra cash. Mind you, my boss doesn't do loads of extra hours either, and neither does his boss.

I haven't always been like this. I used to work silly hours but I have learned that it really isn't necessary in my role - to some extent, work just expands to fill the time available. I don't mess around when I'm in work, and my boss is happy with what I do. And I encourage all of the staff in my team to work sensible hours as well. They aren't any less productive as a result!!

Amykins - It's my marking and feedback that takes so long. Although now in lessons we have to show rapid and sustained progress for ALL students so I have to replan most of the lessons I had under my belt. We have to show that we are using learning habits and ask at all times. We now have more progress reports to write and my workload as a tutor has probably doubled over the last year.

If only I just had lesson planning to do.

I started a PGCE but did not complete it because it was definitely not a good job for a mum. I have spent 20 years in another career and I am back doing what I was doing before the PGCE. The PGCE was a nightmare.

However, I am a single parent and had no-one to look after kids at parents evenings etc. Also, having to get into school at just after 8am was a problem with childcare.

Teaching is not what it is cracked up to be!!!!

ubik - I love my job - even though it is terribly underpaid, I think if i was full time i would be on £26,000.
I rarely take work home now - after so many years of teaching - unless I have a mass of marking for my advanced language learners. I have a huge amount of resources now that I can adapt and update year on year if need be.

Jin snap I work just like you on a >45k salary. But I am old and have experience and that really helps