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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to think that you cannot work full time and support your children's education?

463 replies

IslandGirlie · 13/12/2015 23:25

I've tried to juggle FT work and 2 DCs, they are in Reception & Y1 and failing miserably!
This month I've missed a few school request/ preps for events & kids are having to rush to get things ready for said events. Teachers sending notes to remind things..
I feel like I'm not supporting them in their school work / not spending quality time with them.
Is it possible to be on top this and work full time? School sends at lest 1 email a day! Most days it's two!! There's is always a leaflet in the bag..
DH works full time too and he is helpful as much as he can do. I can't stop wondering that it's not possible to work FT and support children.
How do you do it?

OP posts:
Whenischristmas · 14/12/2015 07:47

Fortunately my dc's school do not accept home baked cakes any more (health and safety.)

Alfieisnoisy · 14/12/2015 07:48

I had no problems working full time initially. It's only as DS has got older that I decreased hours and then stopped. However DS is autistic and supporting his education has meant taking on the local authority to fight for the right support.

I did manage costumes etc when needed...but yes it's a struggle.

LIZS · 14/12/2015 07:57

Presumably most of those events give more than a day or two's notice. Food and clothing can be set aside ready at the weekend. Who collects from school? Do they ensure messages are passed on, could they assist with creative projects.

OneMoreCasualty · 14/12/2015 07:59

"Apparently some schools in the US give you an opt out whereby you just write a cheque at the start of the year and then no requirement to engage with any other fundraising or volunteering activity- you're removed from all mailing lists about bake sales. I'd be all over that. "

Love this.

AutumnLeavesArePretty · 14/12/2015 08:00

It just need organisation, from what I've seen at school it's the working parents that are the most organised as are used to checking things and updating calendars.

Buy cakes and costumes, saves time. With next day delivery its very easy nowadays.

Set aside 30 minutes an evening to do homework, reading and a bag check for letters or quickly scan emails.

Cutting hours or not working at all seems a little excessive for the odd cake or costume!

Domino777 · 14/12/2015 08:01

I'm a SAHP. I only choose activities that fit around my commitments. So no cake sales or serving at fetes. But I read in school each week and at home. We choose not to bother with non reading homework because my kids are busy doing other more enriching things like cooking, sport, creative stuff. Education is more then school.

Mistigri · 14/12/2015 08:08

I've always worked f/t and I realised fairly early on that you just have to be pragmatic about what school things you do and don't do.

I prioritise anything that has an obvious impact on school performance. So for eg I put aside time to help my son in Y9 with his literature homework, as he has a very demanding teacher and it's not his strong point. I will see this teacher once this year at parents' evening, but otherwise I only attend parents' evenings very sporadically.

I do absolutely nothing "just for show" - my children were keen and early readers, so we never read any school reading books. At all. At primary I also put strict limits on homework time - until they were able to work completely independently I set a 20 minute limit and anything undone went back with a brief note. And requests for costumes, cakes etc were only met if given sufficient advance notice. I also never, ever get involved with those annoying crafty homework tasks that mostly get done by parents (here they get done by the child, or not at all).

Tbh the schools have never given me grief about any of this - my kids turn up on time, they are both reasonably behaved and good students, the important stuff gets done, and I never take up teachers' time over trivial issues.

Anotherusername1 · 14/12/2015 08:08

"Supporting" you child's education at this stage means doing reading with them (and tables and spellings etc if you school sets them). It does not mean helping in school, baking cakes and making costumes.

As for homework in primary school, why exactly do schools set work which they know the parents will do?

Anotherusername1 · 14/12/2015 08:10

I also never, ever get involved with those annoying crafty homework tasks that mostly get done by parents (here they get done by the child, or not at all).

In my son's school they get a detention if they don't do homework. He doesn't want the detention, so husband helps out. And that's at secondary school. It's ridiculous. I think a 30 minute detention after school would be more efficient that wasting hours on some silly craft project which isn't even for an art lesson but eg for geography. Next year they have to make a WW1 trench for history. AAAAGH!

LineyReborn · 14/12/2015 08:20

Also, a lot of the weird cardboardy craft projects (motte and bailey, anyone?) have to be brought into school in the pissing rain by children who walk or catch a bus, so they're pretty ruined anyway even wrapped in carrier bags. I'm afraid our little motte failed to survive the great storm of 2009 after DS slipped on ice and crushed it with his elbow.

Burgatroyd · 14/12/2015 08:20

I'm a stay at home mum and have never baked a cake. I use a glue gun for costumes. I only do what is really expected.

LineyReborn · 14/12/2015 08:21

It's expensive, too.

LilaTheTiger · 14/12/2015 08:22

A shared Google calendar has been our saviour.
DDs are 11 and 14 and school stuff is constant.

Everything goes in the calendar immediately, paper letters get photographed and attached to appointments or reminders. At Sunday dinner all 4 of us go through plans for the week and write a shared Google keep list.

It's boring but it's better than being disorganised and stressed.

CombineBananaFister · 14/12/2015 08:24

I'm in a similar situation islandgirlie and it is hard unless you have a fairly thick skin and are able to manage your conscience because I feel it's not just about the time/effort, it's also about the pressure from the school and guilt from the kids.

I wish I could be more selective and confident in the choice to bin other stuff off but the school are relentless in their pressure to get you to attend events (especially money-raising ones which are bloody weekly atm Angry ) It's also the assumption that you're free to drop everything at a moments notice and the sly implication that if you don't attend then you're not really bothered about your childs education - no, I'm working to put a roof over their heads and food on the table.

The guilts pretty crushing too as I used to help at school and the kids whose parents don't come in arent well managed, just left on the sidelines again especially at fundraisers where they are blatently ignored without a cashcow parent in tow,

Refreshing to read this post though because it seems like I just need to man-up and stop trying to do everything badly and just fuck the stupid shit. Reading, love and attention after school - everythingelse can go tiddle Grin

PennyHasNoSurname · 14/12/2015 08:30

Reading this thread thinking my CM is even more amazing than I already thought. DD is at preschool half days and cm half days. CM will bake with her (stuff to take into Nursery), go for her Christmas Jumper, they all got paper baubles to decorate and return for the school tree so she did that with her.

Amazing! Id be lost without her.

Harverina · 14/12/2015 08:36

It's doable but hard.

Dd1 is in primary 1 (Scotland) and I need to make an effort to check the school planner, make sure I note down any special days/events/homework.

We manage ok - dh and I both work FT. But I don't get as much time as I would like to spend with her reading and writing. We read every night at bedtime though - I find this the easiest way. She always has her school book and one other book. We also do other things at bedtime like her sounds/word list etc. Not ideal but it works ok.

At the weekend there is no homework except for her book, which is a shame as it would an ideal time for working parents to sit down and do work.

I do think that projects will be more of a challenge - that will come a bit later but we will just need to be really organised and start early

MrsSchadenfreude · 14/12/2015 08:39

You need to be very, very organised and pick your battles. Agree with those who say the academic stuff comes first. The other shit like outfits for plays and baking for cake sales can come second. Or even third or fourth. In my experience, primary schools always assume "mummy is at home" and give zero notice for anything - "Please bring in your outfit for the nativity play on Friday (on Wednesday)/Harvest Festival tomorrow, please be in the church at 2.00 sharp". I lied my way through a lot of primary, told the kids I was in church watching Harvest Festival/at school for the assembly when in reality I was at work 60 miles away. Had the school been a bit more organised and given more notice, I could have booked leave and been there for some of the stuff, but they weren't and I couldn't. DD1's first school was brilliant - you got the school calendar at the start of the year with every event in it, which meant that you could plan and be there where possible, make sure they had clean clothes for the school photographer etc etc. I don't see why every school can't do this, rather than send out an illiterate note from the school secretary saying that such and such event is going to take place "tomorrow."

You do need a thick skin and to be quite clear with the teachers - eg "I am travelling to New York for work next week, so won't be able to provide DD with cakes for sale/an outfit for the play if it is very complicated." I got the most grief from the other mothers rather than the school, who kept asking me "how can you work full time when they are so tiny?" I used to respond to this by saying, the same way as their husbands managed it, and by employing a nanny.

Suzietwo · 14/12/2015 08:40

My best organising skill was hiring the head of pta as my pa at work!

HPsauciness · 14/12/2015 08:42

You have had good advice on this thread- do the essentials that will genuinely make a difference to your child's progress, such as reading a few times a week and forget the rest.

I have never baked anything for a cake sale, I send them in with a few quid each and am a good customer!

Costumes are a pain, but our school is realising that now and there's much more non-school uniform days for money than dressing up days now.

It is also partly what you make it, I can't believe someone said secondary is as bad as primary, it isn't really- I haven't been into my child's secondary school since she started except for one concert.

Most schools now have Parentmail or Parentpay and if yours doesn't, worth asking if they are going to transfer to an email system/online payment.

As for the rest, just don't go. My dd can't go to sing in the carol service this year as it's an hour drive away on a dark night and I can't arrange it. She won't combust!

Make the time you have together count- so homework with a lot of support, reading, listening about their days at school, extra help if they need it in a weaker area.

It does annoy me too though, our primary sets far too much homework and doesn't leave time for me to do more useful stuff, it's also at the wrong level half the time.

LineyReborn · 14/12/2015 08:43

Some of the homework my DCs were set was absolute garbage - the 'death by worksheet' variety - with mistakes in the questions, incomplete instructions and illegible faded edges.

Ah, the sweet memories...

HPsauciness · 14/12/2015 08:45

Islandgirl also remember it's unlikely your husband is stressing that he can't combine school activities and working full-time. Seriously, don't jeopardize your own career (unless you want to get out) for a few years of leaflets about plays, cup cakes and costumes. They very quickly get older, can travel independently, start organizing their own friends- there is no point IMO scaling back just in response to the school's silliness.

BoboChic · 14/12/2015 08:47

Thank you for reminding me of the word garbage as a descriptor of some homework Smile

swisscheesetony · 14/12/2015 08:49

I used to be a workaholic and now am SAHM (not entirely through choice).

Since half term they've only both been well enough to go to school about 5 times. Between coffee mornings, parents evening, this that and the other I don't know how any two-working families cope.

Speederman · 14/12/2015 08:50

I am out of the house 8am til 7pm. DH works even longer hours.

DS1 is at primary.

Our school is generally quite good - the year calendar is put up on the website at the start of the year and everything goes in my paper and electronic (work) diary with alarms.

So for example, I know when the open days are (3 times a year I get to see DS' work and meet his teacher) but also they say what day we can sign up for our allotted time slot, so both of those go in my diary, so I can get the earliest time possible and go on to work afterwards (or DH goes - we usually take it in turns, DS likes it that way).

I prioritise everything. So for the birthday celebrations I will buy a cake (although I love baking, that celebration is always a Friday and we have no space to freeze cakes and I am not baking late on an evening).

I don't offer to run a PTA stall yet as I have another younger DS. When they are both older and sleeping through the night! I will help more.

I do take a day off work to help run the sports day. It wouldn't take place without parent helpers and its great fun and DS loves it.

I don't take a day off work to help bakes biscuits or cakes.

Our school kindly do performances on a Saturday morning!

Sometimes we do get last minute warnings for things and they are a right pain. Right now our nanny can do it but when DS2 is also at school it'll be harder to juggle, if they continue to do last minute demands like that I'll have to say no. Or DH or I will do the shopping in our lunch hours...

HearTheThunderRoar · 14/12/2015 08:50

I remember once spending a whole afternoon making an origami horse and cart, for no particular reason whatsoever other than they needed homework.

I was not impressed.

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