Would you take a 20% pay cut to have holidays off with your children

[Boboz]

I have just been offered a job as an Administrator in a school office. I am really excited about the role and delighted to be successful in my interview. I have just worked out I will be around £300 a month worse off. It’s a real head and heart situation for me.
I have to say after working all hours and getting home late each evening I love the idea I can have the school holidays with my LO. Has anyone made this jump before and how did this work out for you?

I am stuck to know what to do for the best x

It's also worth considering the implication on your pension. Would it be a 20% or more reduction for the pension?

If you can afford to, yes.

I have dropped my hours by a third so I can be around for the children more and don’t regret it at all. We obviously have less disposable income but spending the extra time with my children is totally worth it.

Yes, absolutely. In fact, I took a 100% pay cut to become a Sahm when dds were 5 & 3. Worth every single penny, and wouldn't swap our time we've had for all the money in the world.

Yes, I would.

I don't have the option of term time only. But I do take 4 weeks per year of Parental Leave (unpaid) to spend more time with my kids in their school holidays. That's only an 8% salary drop, but also only 4 weeks of the holidays covered (annual leave covers some of the rest).

Term time working would be fabulous, but in my job I would need the rest of the world to stop for 6 weeks if I did!

I should add, that we're lucky enough to only need dhs salary.

If you can afford it, do it. A job you'll enjoy plus a great work/life balance is worth a lot more than £300, unless it will leave you struggling for essentials.

But I would even be prepared to give up foreign holidays, cut back on eating out, make do with fewer clothes to get that kind of quality life.

Personally I wouldn’t but I’ve been working nights to spend time with my children since they were little, it’s my time for a career now they’re all at school. I’m sick of leaving for work while they’re settling down for chill and stories etc. So I’d absolutely kill for just a day job. (I have a PT one but it doesn’t pay enough so still doing the nights too)

I don't work school holidays, I m self employed so that's 13 weeks income lost, I m not sure what it works out as but I ve never regretted the choice, it's brilliant!!!

Yes.

yes - if you can afford to.

Would you also be saving on hoilday childcare costs ? - if so may help to work out what they across a year come to each month and factor that in.

I absolutely would. It's only £300 a month and you'll have all their holidays off

I did.
My son was 8 and I asked him if he would rather me have more time with him and less money and he said he would.
I went part time for the first time in my life. This stopped and further progression in my career.
It broke my heart when another parent told me he had told them I had left work so I could look after him more.
We just cut our cloth.
later on I had twins so it would have cost me a fortune in childcare anyway.

Yes, I have no option other than annual leave or paid childcare during school holidays, and both are limited.

Yes and I did by working as a locum then so I could refuse to work many school holiday weeks. Some jobs are more flexible. My husband can usually easily get school holidays off if need be but if you're in a job where several of you can't get off at once it is more limiting.

If I take a 20% pay cut I probably won’t be able to afford said holidays.

Is it school hours during term time too? That would completely seal the deal for me.

Sounds like many people's ideal. For others not so.

I've admittedly only worked party time, pre and post children, but unlike a pp I never found getting holiday childcare stressful or expensive or difficult.

i would do it!

If it's affordable yes.

Just be careful with your sums. Lots of people I know got caught out with schools hours = no childcare. Which is true if you work in your child's school and can rock into/leave work at the same time as they hit the playground. However, it can mean you earning less, but still needing before and after school care which can skew it into unaffordable.

£3600 a year is a lot of childcare...

Yes I would do it.

£3600 a year is a lot of childcare...

I wasn't really suggesting entire school holidays childcare would equal amount to the 20% cut.

I was more suggesting is a cost that OP may now avoid which might help over all sums on if she can afford it.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment. 😊
I should say I am lucky as I have family who help out with childcare so I won’t be saving there.

The hours of this new role are 8am-4pm Monday to Thursday and 8am-3.30pm on Fridays.
I am still mulling it over x

I did exactly that. It has been great not having to think about holiday childcare and its been great having extended time off with my children.

There was a lot of offset in not having to pay for childcare, but bear in mind you don't want to sit round the house watching TV all day either. There are free things to do, but filling a whole summer with free stuff is quite hard so you will end up spending money.

Also pensions, future job prospects etc need to be taken into account. If you are leaving some fab profession you'll never get back into then its not as worth it as if you work in a similar role but not in a school.

Schools vary quite a lot - I've had some good opportunities to learn new skills and develop, so when its time to move on I feel my CV is better but again, I wouldn't be saying that if I was previously an air traffic controller for instance.

I have - in the opposite direction. Returning to work after being a SAHM I have taken a job as an admin assistant in a school. The money isn’t great but the holidays are priceless. DH is a teacher too, so we are all off together for every holiday: we’re not rich but it makes life very low-stress.