To think that on a low paid or minimum wage job which fits into school hours (no weekends/evenings, and holiday childcare paid), you're looking at maybe as low as around £7000 a year?

[Alondonleerie]

Haven't done the maths with specific numbers yet, based on something I was looking at a few years ago, and was wondering what ppls experiences of it is now.
Situation: parent 1 is sole carer majority of the time as parent 2 works away. No friends or family to help with childcare before/after school, sick days, or any holidays, so any work has to either for completely into school hours or next paid off in childcare costs.
Realistically, what are you looking at earning in a year, if such a job came up?

I earn double that working at home, when I want and usually average 12 - 15 hours a week. Set your sights higher than low paid, minimum wage.

(And I have a PROPER job, I'm not doing mlm shite.)

Silene what do you suggest? Genuine question.

I'm thinking about all of this too as my DH often works away and we don't have local grandparents. I'll probably have to consider either temping or term time only until DC are old enough to be left to their own devices over the holidays.

If you were a teacher could you become a childminder yourself? You'd slip into the role easily, you could do drop offs and pick ups. You could work until 6 if you wanted?
Look at how much people around you charge an hour. We charge £5 and that's the cheapest. 3 kids under 5 would be £15 if you are at max capacity (we usually are) then you can have 3 more under 8 usually after school and holidays (which includes your kids)

I work in FE in a support/business role. Not quite school hours but TTO. My full time equivalent salary is approx 25k... other support roles start at about 16k. Not always necessary to have a specialist degree, and a teaching degree would be valid anyway. Might be worth a look on FE jobs to see what's vacant in your area.

This is why I can't work. The job I require I need to work 10 til 2 only. Almost impossible to find unless your already in the workplace and can request a change of hour's.

Even if I managed to find a job 10 til 2, there are 13 weeks school holidays, which I couldn't cover. My minimum wage earnings would not be enough to pay for childcare and I have noone to help. So I'm completely stuck

I do web content writing. If you're a teacher, you're qualified to degree level. You should be able to write in grammatically correct English and use correct spelling. Those are skills which are demand across the world. The internet means you can work for clients anywhere.

Well if it's low paid and those are your literal specifications, so not even something like a TA role that would require you to be in half an hour earlier than school starts and stay half an hour later than finish, then yes. If you work from 9.30 to 2.30 5 days a week, 39 weeks a year and you're not on a 44 week contract like a lot of school roles are, NMW for that comes to £7605 if you don't have an unpaid lunch break and £6844 if you do. Will increase a bit when NMW goes up later this year and would be higher if you did get a 44 week contract, but yeah, those are the bare numbers.

I suppose like everyone else, the question I'd ask is whether there might be other options available to you. But if there's not, I can't see that 7kish per annum plus all wraparound and holiday childcare is you being lazy, though granted I don't know how sick days would work in that scenario. You're talking about £600 a month, as there's no tax or NI on that wage, and there are plenty of lower earning partners who don't clear that after childcare costs. And you wouldn't be getting any breaks.

I work part time too and my eldest is school age, I also plan to stay part time once I have no preschoolers. But I will continue with my long days rather than compressing over school hours because frankly it's an easier life.

Well the parent would need to use childcare but I don't see why they could only earn £7k. All the people whose partners are away in the forces, on oil rigs etc don't restrict their earnings to £7k, they pay for childcare.

My friend retrained as a children's swimming teacher; term time, school hours. She absolutely loves it.

Ah OK if the individual is restricted for some reason to minimum wage roles then 6es they could not afford childcare so their earnings would be low. But £7k can still make a big difference to a family and I would assume that partner is paid a premium for being away.

if you want school hours and term time only, you only have school jobs: teacher, admin, TA but probably not the kind of nmw role you have in mind.

Your friend is being a bit of a twat inferring that you're lazy. I'd be reasonably happy with £8k a year if it meant I could do drop offs, pick ups, holidays etc. I will hopefully bring in around the same when I return to work next year. The childcare we would need for our 2 dc would cost around £7-8k a year so it amounts £16k a year for pt work, I know plenty if women who returned to work and continued in their jobs and aren't left with much more than that after childcare.

Hi I have been working in a special school as a classroom assistant for 6 months now I earn just under 11000 a year (£895 a month). I am currently doing an NVQ level 3 so once that is completed hopefully my wages will go up a bit but I'm not holding my breath.

Have a look at local authority jobs OP. that's what I did after having my youngest and I started off doing 2.5 days per week when he was a baby then 5 hours 5 days per week once he started school. Was on 23k full time extended so was about 15.5k for 25 hours. I now work full time with half the time working from home and 2 days in the office but only school hours and have got a more senior role now so am on 28k. I haven't factored in school holidays but am a lp and split them with my parents but you could do that with your dp

If you are absolutely stuck to term time hours after school drop off, then, yes, your options are extremely limited. You would be better off working more in a better paid job and paying for childcare. Part time options are out there, but you have to hustle to get them, and not be afraid to apply for full time roles and ask for part time hours at some point.

And yes, childcare is a nightmare in the first instance but it does settle down soon enough. If you aren’t prepared for a bit of seat of your pants flying using ad hoc childcare/babysitters until you get into your groove then you won’t get anywhere. Obviously this will be different depending on whether you want someone to look after a Reception aged kid or a 9 year old.

If the money you currently earn is sufficient for your family's needs then keep doing what you're doing and ignore the person who called you lazy.

But if you need to earn more it is possible to do so. All of the barriers you have identified can be overcome, as many single parents and second-income spouses have been forced to discover.

Oh the person calling you lazy can fuck off. Childcare costs are huge and working isn't always worth the cost or hassle. Do what's right for you

I don't think it's lazy but if it isn't sufficient I think there are other options, which generally speaking means working more and paying for more childcare, you may need to retrain if you feel your skills won't get you the salary to justify that but depending how many kids you have school aged childcare, even including holidays, does mean a profit. I appreciate some areas are more limited with childcare options, but I've personally never understood the fascination with trying to find a school hours job, especially as that usually means working with kids ha.

You are determined to close down any and all other possibilities. Why? Are there other issues at play here eg depression?

Were you lazy to earn only 7k? No. Could you have chosen a different, higher paid role? Maybe. Was your 'friend' rude and hurtful. Yes.

Honestly what do you want us to say?

Op might want someone to read the thread and her follow up posts about someone calling her lazy. Just a thought.

OP, you're not lazy. Anyone judging you as such is not with your time or your consideration.
Don't let someone so judgemental and petty bother you, you do what's best for you and your family and flip them the bird if they say any type of bullshit again.

I earn 20k working 9-3. Eldest is at school and youngest has just qualified for the 30 hours childcare. My wage was pretty much minimum wage and I was doing a bit of ad hoc work for the company while working somewhere else. The company then expanded and and they offered me a promotion. Basically I had to work for a shit wage and spend most of it on childcare for a while. I had my DC in my early twenties, hadn't grown my career and took a lot of shitty waitressing jobs that fit in with the kids. Now things are looking on the up and I'm getting back on track and we're a lot more comfortable than we were this time last year.

Don’t think OP wants suggestions, just confirmation that she isn’t lazy and is earning a reasonable amount whilst managing childcare and school hours.

Look for a permanent part time role - 25 hours per week. Use your 4 weeks holiday for childcare, and then for the remainder of the school holidays put them in holiday clubs.
You will get a better paid job this way than if you just try and find a term time only job.

Salary depends on where you live - I appreciate that...