Whole career change meaning life change

[ponderinginpoughkeepsie]

At present I have a stressful but poorly paid job. I constantly feel that I'm asked to do things which are way above my level of responsibility. I think people do this because I'm quite good at what I do and I'm quite willing to learn. For example, when I started there were certain technical documents which it was my job to scan and put on a system, I wanted to know what it was and what the information meant so that when I was scanning it I could check for errors or anomalies. Due to my interest in this sector I have applied to do a degree which would train me to do a similar job to those above me at work. The training is long, I'll be broke and when I finish I'll be competing against lots of 25 year olds without kids and a mortgage for the same few jobs, not to mention others with more experience.
Yesterday I was looking after my friends DC's as well as my DC's (so four in total) and I realised I quite enjoyed it. I love being a parent, which is part of the reason I feel so annoyed at work sometimes as I just wanted a basic admin role which I could clock in and clock out but instead I got something which takes me away from my DC's when I'm supposed to be on annual leave and in the evenings, due to workload. I can't ever really switch off.
I was considering a move to childminding a few years ago as there's a real shortage in my area, especially for the 'no screen time, walks in nature, yoga before rice cakes' crew. I've used Childminder's who are brilliant and have honestly made my children's life so much richer and I would love to give that to another family.
Also school holidays are the absolute worse and my DC's have only had two days at home in the Easter holidays. Every other day they have been shipped out to a club, family, random people I met at the park etc. I can only see this getting harder and them getting more resistant in the future. Being a childminder isn't going to be an easy solution but at least I would be there (physically) at least.
Part of me wonders if I'd miss the company, as I really do get to work with people with fantastic minds but who's minds are more fascinating than children? I love their curiosity, the intensity of their emotions, their language.
Financially I couldn't be any worse off and wouldn't have to pay for childcare so would more than likely be better off even after registration and course fees.
What do you think?

It was a bit long (my post)

Go for it ! I thought I would miss office contact over the past year ...I haven't I certainly font miss the arrogant knobheads. I've come to the conclusion whatever you do somevworkplaces will try and squeeze the last drop out of you. It is just not worth it.

But on the other hand you might not want to be a childminder forever?

Or could you do the degree while being a childminder so that you have that career move for later?

I mostly just wondered if that means I made my children’s like poorer by not having giving rice cakes before yoga 🤷🏻‍♀️

I would personally take a degree (if relevant and needed), more skills and career progression over child minding any day.

If you’re working extra unpaid hours in what is an admin level job, then either your own boundaries are wrong, or you’re with the wrong company.

I was a childminder fir 6 months. I couldn’t hack it and I looked after amazing kids. It’s lonely (I went out to playgroups and had people to meet up with) and boring snd you spend a lot of time tidying up.

What you need to consider is that with your children, you'll be restricted to the number of kids you can have, so needs to consider how much you'd earn after all expenses and whether that would be enough for you.

@dontdisturbmenow well from September both will be at school so I think I can have three under 3's?

Yes but what about after school and holidays?

Have you investigated the prospects of getting a job at the end of the degree/training you’ve applied for, in your area? Unless they’re really good, wouldn’t proceed with that as the costs/benefits won’r stack up.

You have lots of options other than expensive (and unpaid) study for several years and childminding. For example using your current experience to move to an admin role with another employer.

Would consider your wishes and priorities then fully investigate a range of options and assess them for pros/cons etc.

@Dozer I fear that it's my personality that means I feel this way. I always overinvest in my workplace. I'm not very good at just being told to do something and doing it. I have to understand what I'm doing and what part that task plays in the bigger picture. Some employers have found this frustrating whilst some use it to their advantage. I don't feel my current place is a good fit as it's open 24 hours so I think about what might be going on 24 hours! That's just my personality.

How old are your kids? When they are very little you want to be around more. Once they're in school, you don't need to physically be home as much. Even in holidays it's more about supervising them because they go and do their own thing a lot of the time. Well mine do anyway. I've definitely enjoyed getting back to full-time work since my kids went to school.

It definitely sounds like you need a new job. I'm not sure childminding is the answer though. I think you just need to find something that is the basic admin job you wanted in the first place. I ended up like you when I first went back full time, I thought I was going into an easy job I could leave at the door but it was anything but. I did need to wait another couple of years, but I've now moved into a job that is slower paced, I can leave at 5pm and get holidays off no bother and even better I can now WFH.

If your job is a low paid admin job why are you working such long hours and stressing about it? Surely you should do your best while you're there, but once you've clocked off your time is your own. You need to work on your boundaries instead of saying 'I'm so involved! I just can't help myself!'. You're wasting your precious time on a crappy job you don't enjoy.

In your position I would continue the studies, but do the childminding; then you have something to fall back on once your kids are older and you don't want to childmind anymore.

Doesn’t sound like ‘personality’ but rather a set of behaviours and habits you’ve formed about work, and for some reason think could be hard to change. That isn’t necessarily the case. Depending on your options and pros/cons it might be better to work on your habits and adjusting your ‘mindset’ and work for an employer, than, for example, set up self employed

Spending much time/energy outside working hours thinking about work, doing unpaid overtime etc, is unlikely to help you, either at work or home. Especially in low paid jobs and when your stated priority at present is home stuff.

A iob based in your home, eg child minding, might make it even more challenging to detach.

It’s not your personality, it’s your choice.
Don’t be so flippant to write it off as unchangeable.

I suppose a lot of this comes down to the absence of interesting, flexible admin roles and society's disregard for women's education after they've had children. Used to work somewhere that wouldn't let us send an email unless it had been proof read by a clinician. As if we were going to our 'see you babez' above the signature, we all had degrees!