Has anyone regretted going part time to spend time with pre-school children?

[dottytablecloth]

Because financially it was a struggle?

Is it always the case that spending more time with dc is worth th financial loss?

It'll be a short term (2-3 year) thing for our family but we will be looking for lots of cheap, or free, things to do as we definitely won't have lots of spare cash.

For financial reasons i had to but no regrets.

No regrets. And still part time now for various reasons ! Made it clear to dh that me being part time while they were preschool age was to spend times with kids and not to do more housework!

How much are you planning on reducing your hours by?

I'm doing part time but still 32.5 hours a week. I'm doing my hours over 3 days and admittedly I am worried that the majority of the household duties will fall to me as I'm home at four days a week even though I'm still working practically the same hours as my DH.

If that does happen I won't be happy at all. I'm actually seriously considering getting a cleaner to ensure the cleaning does not fall on my shoulders.

As a PP said, it's looking at how your "more hours at home" will actually be spent and whether it actually justifies a drop (big?) in salary. I wouldn't be cutting my hours back if I was then still going to be viewed as being in a SAHM role and being expected to do what that entails alongside also being in work.

I Went back to work in September PT and like you would be better off financially if I was FT even factoring in Childcare. However for my sanity and the quality of family life being PT is so much better. DD is in nursery every day but only does one full day, I collect her at lunch time 3 times a week and DP does once a week. This works well for us. That one day when she is in full time she has all three meals at nursery and this makes me feel sad and we just don't get to see her much that day.

If I was FT I honestly don't know how we would cope as I'm a teacher and have to work in the evenings as well. I have friends who work FT as teachers but most have a lot of family support which I don't have and I think this is also significant. I'm pretty certain DD would be fine if I worked FT but I'm glad I don't have to.

I only work one or two days a week at present, but it isn't through choice, I was made redundant through my last maternity and am doing contract hours for a start up and hope it will grow. It's definitely better than nothing but on bad days, I do hate that I put so much thought into work for potentially little reward if it doesn't take off. Pretty much everyone thinks it's just a little pin money on the side for me as a sahm, which they wouldn't think if I was a man trying to re-establish after redundancy .

It's not a struggle as such, though we would be much better off if I worked ft: pay off debt quicker, foreign holidays etc. but my mental health would suffer and we'd probably end up divorced! As a teacher I just wouldn't have enough time to plan and mark at home. At the moment DH and I are happy to sacrifice c£800 a month for this. Plus I get to see school an participate in some activities at school, which I would be be able to do if I was ft.

Would never!

PT works well for us, but only because DH and I both do it (4dw each). As others have said, there is a risk you end up doing a ton of housework instead of the fun stuff so make sure this won't be the case. I know if I was PT and DH FT, I would have to fight to get him to pull his weight in the house. . 50/50 is the only way it can work for us.

It's interesting to see so many teachers on this thread and I'm glad for the opinions.

It seems the general view is that part time is the best option and I definitely cannot afford to give up totally (nor would I want to!)

Working 3 days will give me a good work life balance but all the little luxuries will have to wait.

I just think my gut feeling is 3 days is the best option for me when our children as so small as I can never get that time back when neither of them are in school.

I did a 3 day week when mine was pre-school and now do the same hours over 5 days to fit in with school hours.
DS said to me this morning how much he'd loved our days together and we both wished we were still following the pre school weekly routine!

If you can afford it, it's well worth it IMO.