To go back to work early?

[chewiecat]

More of a wwyd really..

My 6.5 month old baby is EBF, have never given him a bottle before because we never needed it. We started solids with him but he's not too fussed about it yet. So far it's just been me and DH looking after him, no one else has had sole charge of him before.

My boss called me up today to say that there is a project that they really think I will be good at. It's a very interesting role and only 3 days a week, with most of it I can work from home, with the odd meeting in the office. It's a great opportunity and would really boost my career. He said he will be happy to make the role as flexible as possible.

My dilemma is whether to take it or not. It starts next week I have no childcare arranged as was only planning on going back next April!

Wwyd?

Oh my goodness! Part time, flexible hours, understanding boss, workplace emergency childcare, a career that you enjoy... lady, you have found the HOLY GRAIL!!! Take it! Your little one will be fine. As someone already mentioned, mat leave in many countries is way shorter than in the U.K. and kids turn out just fine. If anything, I think a baby learning to be comfortable with other adults part time is a great thing for building resilience and social skills. Obviously don't hand him over to any old chap off the street - but if you choose a childminder carefully I don't think you should feel guilty at all. You're creating great opportunities for yourself, and for your family.

A whole year's worth of 4 year olds have just started school. It's a good time to be looking for childcare - nurseries will have more spaces now than in April. I don't know about nannies but I assume the same will apply to some extent.

That makes me so angry chewie! I hope it becomes the norm soon. My husband did it and the HR team at his place completely cocked up the admin. I don't think they had deal with it before... And he works for a huge professional services firm with tens of thousands of employees. He has the same legal right as you to take the leave.

I didn't feel guilty about returning to work (which I did 3 months early for a special project- spooky)

Does your husband feel guilty going to work everyday? Doubt it

Autofill you're right, my DH doesn't feel guilty for going back to work and instead is trying to make me feel guilty for thinking about this

It sounds like you want to do it.
So do it.

Just one word of warning with working from home and getting a nanny. It's hard to focus with your DC in the house. They cry, you instantly jump up. Maybe you could make it work but I'd also look at a childminder or even nursery if there are good ones close to you with spaces. You will start dropping feeds quickly soon so try to look at the best longer term childcare option for you.

shared parental is not an option for my DH unfortunately, his career would suffer as his manager is very old fashioned

Errrr... like every single woman who goes on maternity leave? Sorry but that's crap. It's not a criticism of you - my OH is the same, but I think what your DH means is that he's not prepared to make any allowances in his career for the fact he's got a family. His choice, but he has absolutely no right to make you feel guilty.

Hi everyone, just to give you a quick update, if anyone is interested..

So I have gone back to work but only for 6 weeks , using a combination of KIT days and Shared parental KIT days (SPLIT) days. Apparently split gives you an additional 20 days on top of your 10 KIT days. So my DH is taking one week of SPL to enable me to use my 20 days SPLIT days.

My mil is going to be doing the childcare but my boss is uber flexible and said I can work from home with hours to suit me! 😂 so I'm managing to do this during nap times.

which is a win win as I feel like I'm putting my spare time to good use , but also still spending quality time with my little one. 😊

I would especially if working from home is an option.