I ABU so please give me a telling off - re working part time as a teacher.

[dottytablecloth]

I think the main issue I have is that I don't think 4 days as a teacher is really part time! I will still do the majority of the work (and get paid the majority) but I see the person who does my 1 day will do just that, teach for 5 hours and I'll do all the admin, planning, parent interviews etc.

But anyway...

I'm about to go on ML to have dc2. I worked full time after my first baby, it was tough some days but have a v supportive dh so it definitely was manageable.

Dh and I agreed that after dc 2 I would go 4 days a week as childminder is going 4 days and we don't want to be reliant on family. The plan is that our dc will be in paid Childcare for 2 days a week, I'll do one day.

Now for the BU bit. I feel I am. My dh does shift work and he is at home various different days during the week, sometimes 1 or sometimes as many as 3 during the week. On these days he does all the Childcare obviously. He's not great at multitasking so doesn't do cleaning or ironing etc when he's at home- he spends the day with ds, out and about, walks, park, toddler groups. He will always have dinner cooked when I get home but I will have to tell him what to cook, I don't mind this as left to his own devices will produce some strange concoctions!

Anyway, everybody I know who is a teacher does 2/3 days when they have children and I struggling so hard not to be petulant that I can't do this. It wouldn't make sense to have the two of us, dh and me, at home during the week so it does make sense I suppose.

I am the higher earner so financially it wouldn't make sense for me to drop more days at work.

My mum does one day of Childcare for us and mil does 1-2 days a month, so this arrangement will continue.

I guess I feel guilty for not being part time, in my mind part time is not 4 days. I do get comments from people about working and I have had to justify myself for not being part time, it's really no one else's business but I find it hard not to be defensive. Sorry if I'm rambling.

AIBVVVU?

YANBU. I think with any job being part time at 4 days per week can be almost like being full time. Particularly a job with expandable work like teaching. Which is why when I worked part time it was 3 days per week - easier to say No to things.

Can you offload some of the planning to the 1 day a week teacher? e.g. One of the topic work pieces if primary, or something?

And of course you can both be at home in the week. You can catch up on marking or planning so you don't need to use evenings, while he does childcare.

Of course, finances may not allow it.

I don't think there is a combination of working OOH/working from home/not working/working part time that doesn't make a parent feel guilty and compromised to a certain extent. I am self employed so fit 90% of my work around my son and he still occasionally says to me 'Mummy, stop working and play with me' (usually when he has been happily playing without me for ages and suddenly wants my undivided attention!). He doesn't go to nursery and spend all his time with my husband and me, and we still sometimes worry when we leave him to his own devices for a morning to get urgent work done so I honestly don't think there is a magical ratio of time which feels perfect.

If you feel as though you are getting the rough end of the deal when it comes to your workload in school, then you could try and adjust the balance - your job share might actually like to take responsibility for something specific to allow them to develop their skills rather than just 'being you' for one day a week. Could you maybe sit down and discuss the allocation of work to ensure that you aren't getting all the admin while they just have to turn up and do what you have left them?

If you're doing what works for your family, then you need to ignore what anyone else says about your arrangements - unless they are prepared to offer you money, childcare or free stuff, then they can stick their opinions wherever they deem appropriate.

4 days a week teaching is not like 4 days a week in other jobs. There's all the additional prep, marking, lesson planning, collecting materials etc to be done.

I agree that four days does not feel very 'part time' depending on the job. At one point I was doing four days as a magazine editor - but I took home so much work and answered so many emails (and there wasn't anyone working the fifth day!) that I resented not getting paid for that fifth day! However now I'm in a role with much less take-home work and it's fine. I guess as a teacher there's always take-home work.

Anyway, no advice, but sympathies!

4 days of being a teacher is a full time job in term time.

You don't have to justify or explain.

Why do you have to do all the planning? Are you primary or secondary? You can certainly off-load some of that - and the marking that goes with it!

Can you afford to go three days? If yes, then why not?

Are you primary or secondary?

On a purely selfish level, my heart sinks when I see my children have been allocated 2 p/t primary teachers rather than 1 f/t teacher - I don't think it works although it might be because of the teachers themselves rather than the situation certainly true for one particulalry po-faced, disinterested woman

But no, from what you hve said, it doesn't sound like YABU.

Are you receiving PPA time?
You are entitled to 10% of your timetabled hours for planning, preparation and assessment, which works out at 2 hours per week, possibly one afternoon.
Have you any allocated time to liaise with the I day teacher?
You shouldn't be planning, marking or assessing for her; arrange the timetable so that she is doing discrete subjects for which she is entirely responsible: science, topic, music, games etc.
Nevertheless, it is hard. Sympathies.

Have you done the figures for working three days instead?
I think the two patent at home in the week thing is a red herring, how lovely to have more time with both parents, or chance for one of you to take each child for some imdividual time. Three days I think is the ideal with small dcs, maybe a day off with older ones would feel like "enough" but I don't think so with pre-schoolers.

I did the sums and all things considered, if I went back four days after DC2 I'd end up with about £75 a month more in my pocket than if I went back three days, so it was a no-brainier really. It's worth looking at (15 free hours for DC1 is what makes the difference for us - and we have no family child care at all).

Ideally the more time we all spend at home together the better but it's the financial aspect that is the deciding factor. Me earning four fifths collared to three fifths of my salary rules out 3 days.

Yes, you also need to check actual take-home pay (using an on-line calculator) because paying less tax can make quite a difference to the money you make for fewer days.

Cross posts with OP but still see my point! Also, can you use childcare vouchers for your two days childcare?

Just before a 2 month holiday? yabu

I work in the oil and gas industry, my husband is a headmaster. There is no comparison between our jobs, I earn more and work year round. He worked in industry before teaching and admits that term times are massively intensive but doesn't think the summer is until exam results are out.

Work the summer

Could you work 3 days and do tutoring 1 or 2 evenings a week?

Does your DH work full-time and works at the weekend and then 2-4 days in the week?

No, dh does rotating shifts so 6 days in a row then 3 days off.

I already tutor in the evenings, 2 children a week!

TES calculator doesn't work on my iPad!

Doing four days is often just working full time hours crunched into four days with less money.

Will the 1/5 teacher have to do NO planning etc? That's harsh isn't it.

The 1/5 teacher wouldn't really need to do much planning.

I'm in N Ireland and we don't get PPA time here, we get a 'free hour' every week. I'm a subject coordinator (unpaid and no time given to do it! )

I think you and your DH must both be super busy ( especially in term time) as you are both working or very nearly working full time but only using approximately 3 days a week of childcare. Have you gone through your budget to see if you could go to three days.

As a parent I think I would prefer a good primary teacher who did four days a week, to a 3/2 job share.

Much less likelyhood of the DCs playing the teaches off against each other and liking/hating 1/2 the week.

Having a different teacher on Fridays, when they had golden time and it was more relaxed worked brilliantly. Fridays teacher also did art (which Mrs Fourdays, hated and happily admitted to being hopeless at).

I say 'good teacher' because Mrs fourdays obviously worked more than full time being DHT and doing practical and pastoral care things that made my quirky and sometimes time consuming DDs life better.

Her previous 4 day a week teach definitely worked part time, everything was too much bother, even between 9 and 3.20