Perfect job around DC

[BrilliantBetty]

AIBU to ask, If you have a job that works perfectly for you around your childcare responsibilities, school run etc. What is it?

I'd love to know if there are some jobs out there that actually fit in around school hours.

Going back to the office for me has been a reality check. I am so stressed and worried all the time. Mostly about childcare arrangements. I just want to be there for my kids, while not giving up work entirely.

I think trying to find something that pays any meaningful amount of money and enables you to use no childcare at all is unrealistic. School holidays are so long that you simply won't get enough annual leave in any job to cover them completely.

I work 2 days 8-5, and two days 8-3, wfh on the 8-3 days. DH wfh 9-5 on the days I am in the office 8-5. This means I do 3 school pick ups a week and one drop off. DH does two drop offs at school (the days he wfh). We use a childminder for wraparound for 2 mornings from 8 til 8.35, and 2 afternoons until 5pm. For school holidays we use a mix of swaps with family, annual leave, and a few days with the childminder. It's a really good balance.

I work in the finance team of a large listed corporate.

Civil Service - I'm wfh so its easier atm but even when I worked 3 days in the office I was able to leave early enough to pick them up two days, made up the time on the 3rd day and DH or a friend picked up (I picked up her kids on my day off). I didn't start until 10am so took them to school every day first. There are not many parents in my team so getting the school holidays off is relatively easy, and me/DH tag team annual leave in the summer - we maybe use a Grandparent for the odd day so as not to take too much time off. I have 33.5 days annual leave and up to 19 days flexi so its relatively easy to cover. Appreciate I am very very lucky - though deliberately went for the role in order to have those benefits and options.

There is no perfect job for school runs. Even the jobs in school, full-time you will be there before the kids and there after they leave, there are very few part time ones in schools too.
Unfortunately it's like everything else you need to compromise, either hours, childcare, money or all of them and also prepare for times when things just crop up.
I agree reality stinks but perfection does not exist.

I'm self employed as a freelance writer, so I can make my job fit around my kids - I have deadlines, not specific work hours. But I did have to put in the office hours in my 20s in order to get the experience and the contacts.

I work nights in a supermarket 10-8am. Works great around DH, and kids

I already did a job that was 'school hours' before I had dc, so people presumed I was incredibly lucky.
Yes, I never had to worry about holiday child care but my hours were/are longer than the school day and booking an hour off to attend nativity plays, assemblies etc when you work in a school is impossible!

Honestly the only parents I've ever known who seem to find the endless juggle easy are those with one parent either at home working (or not working) or those with an incredible family support network close by!

It's a mixture of luck, connections and compromise. I was fortunate to find what I wanted, which was school hours, term time only on a decent salary, so I didn't need childcare. To get this, I resigned from a job with arguably more prospects to return to a role I had left several years earlier on very good terms and remained in contact with the CEO. I had to sacrifice a good management structure and career paths for a chaotic one, but to me it was worth the compromise to enable me to do every school pick up and be there in the holidays.

I second civil service, it's been amazing for me. I wfh full time, was hired on the understanding it would be predominantly wfh as my nearest office is over an hour away. That plus flexible working/flexi time suits me perfectly.

Dh also works from home and we share pick up and drop offs between us for the 2 dc. 6yo has some clubs we also share drop offs for.

It's not totally stress free, some days we have diary clashes but my manager and team are pretty understanding and there's been days I've just dialled into a call from my work phone while I collect dc from school if it can't be rearranged.

Pay wise, public sector isn't as high as private but depending on what you do it can be pretty good and IMO the benefits are completely worth it- without flexible and home working I'd be thousands out of pocket for travel and childcare!

Admin staff in certain parts nhs. Our sections secretaries work flexi so some come in early and leave early others work term time and some work school hours. Helps.if you have been in the job a good while.

WFH made the balancing act so much easier. I was able to be there a lot more, and focus on my job too. Never missed a meeting or a deadline.

It feels like such a step backwards returning to the office every day.

I agree, civil service. Some people have the most random patterns, no one would blink at school hours term time tbh.

Mine is pretty good and I'm paid around £19k p/y for 2.5 days. I work as a debt adviser and have a caseload of people to help, now all done by phone. It really helps having a decent boss and working for a relaxed charity. So I drop off 3 kids (at different places) 3 days a week, home for 9.15/9.30am - hit the phones - speak to clients/creditors, do casework etc for 5 or so hours then do pick-ups, washing, tea etc. I then write up casework for an hour or two in the evenings. It also helps that I have 8w holidays p/a and my husband is a teacher so all the school holidays. There are downsides such as crap progression, pension etc but I do know how lucky I am.

I’m a widowed parent working 0.6 FTE in marketing. I was able to reduce hours after my first DC because the dept was cost cutting, so it worked for my employer too.

Now my DC are at school I work my three days spread over four to fit in with school hours, plus one weekday at home for my sanity - no other adult to help run the household plus I need a bit of headspace away from DC/work.

I only need about 12 days’ holiday childcare a year as I’m able to be flexible with changing my day off to suit teacher training days, plus holiday allowance is pretty generous. I go back to working three full days when needed in the holidays.

I’ve been fortunate I guess - we can live off my part time wage as my full time equivalent salary is good, and DH had a bit of life insurance. The juggling is hard though, the job can be stressful, and I miss DH like crazy.

Depends how many hours and how much money you want to make. I work in a supermarket in the evenings, so I do the school runs and childcare during the day while dh is at work, then he does bath and bed while I go off to work.

I’m starting a job as a community nurse working 6-11pm, won’t see DP right much but hey ho.

I'm a lunchtime supervisor which is a posh name for a dinner lady.
I do 12pm to 1.30pm meaning I can do drop off and pick up.Having the sxhool holidays off is brilliant because obviously I don't need childcare.The only obvious downside is the money but dh works full time in a well paid job so it works for us.

I did have yes . Local government administrator I worked 9.30 to 2.30 term time contract . I still work part time but no longer term time (no longer have school age DC). However I understand that the generous flexibility I was offered 15 years ago is no longer available to new starters.

It really varies on your finances? I knew a bank care worker who could pick up shifts around her childcare commitments but then again couldn't support her family on her wage alone.

I used to work in a police control room in the evenings when my DC were little which was perfect at the time. I was home all day for them then went out when DH got home.

It didn't really work as well when they started school because I hardly saw the DC then. But could do all the school runs etc.

I now do a different job WFH, which is perfect. I can work around school runs. I also have a DH who is home two days in the week which makes a huge difference too.

Mine does, but only because dh also pulls his weight so I’m not expected to do all the running around.

Either he does mornings and I go in early and do pick up while he works late, or vice versa.

I don’t think it’s possible for one person to hold down a job with no help childcare wise unless it’s super flexible and you can work when children have gone to bed or whatever. And that must be utterly exhausting.

I’m a civil servant but I still have to use a childminder for school pick ups.

I do 3 night shifts a week which is 30hrs a week. I'm a single mum so on the days I work exh has ds and the days I'm off work I have ds. It means I can pick ups and drop offs on the days I have ds. I also sometimes pick up ds for exh so I get a few extra hours with him.

When my dc started school, I has worked in my role (media/comms) for a number of years so I was in a good position to negotiate. I was able to show that I could fulfil my tasks in my role by working 7.30-3 each day so that I could pick them up and do all the after school stuff (swim lessons, rainbows).

Dh in similar role negotiated a later start so he dropped off.

We were pretty local to school (10 mins walk) and work (15 mins drive) which helped.

We still has to sort holiday cover (see MN threads) but day to day it worked well. No childcare bills either. I earned a decent salary btw, equivalent to about 35k today.

I work in a specialised area of Business Development
I work 25 hours a week and largely pick when I work, I often work 9-12 and then 6-8 but I’m in charge of my diary so it’s up to me mostly
My DC are older now so I don’t need to work around them so much but I enjoy the flexibility

Civil service, work part time, around nursery hours at the moment but should be able to change my hours to do all the pick ups when kids are school age. Holidays will still be a challenge and I expect we'll have to do a lot of holiday clubs, but I'm lucky to have a lot of flexibility ordinarily.