To think I shouldn't have to work a second job to make ends meet

[drusillabee]

I am a teacher working 4 days.

DH has a clinical role in NHS.

Our household income is about 80k. Pretty decent until you factor in rising costs of everything plus childcare.

We have 2 DC under 3 and omg nursery costs are so expensive. I'm on MAT leave for another month and I'm having to go back sooner than we anticipated due to rising costs and basically having run out of money since I won't be getting any SMP.

I just am so sad that I've worked since I was 16, essentially paying into the system for the last 10 years and feeling like I have nothing to show for it.

I've worked my bloody arse off in inner city schools with kids that come from awful backgrounds to help them get out of the cycle of benefits they were born into. The government haven't paid me (or other public sector workers) a penny extra for going above and beyond every single fucking day.

And when we do need a little helping hand, we get jack shit. Nurses got a clap. Teachers got a pay rise but more workload to go along with it.

And then when women go on MAT leave we're given hardly anything to bloody survive that forces to return to work after 6 months slogging for the government that are relying on basically free labour.

My 2 year old asked me to buy her an ice cream today and I'm so grateful that I managed to distract her with the snacks I brought from home because I have £6 left in my bank account till Tuesday.

I go back to work in a week. My youngest daughter won't even be 9 months. She refused a bottle and is exclusively breastfed. She doesn't even take expressed milk from a cup. My heart is breaking at thinking how she's going to go a whole day without me.

I can't even do anything else that I can leave teaching for more flexible hours and better pay. Tbh I love teaching, I just hate that I have to return so soon on a shit salary for the job that I do.

So on top of that, I'm having to look for a weekend job so we can do more than just pay the bills.

Hahahaha. You have no idea!

Yes I am sure it was awful for some furloughed people /people who couldn't work. I don't doubt that. But it wasnt all cushy for essential worker s(and you know it)

But what about nurses, going to work knowing they were risking their lives (for instance)? (My mum was in her 60s but carried on going into work to care for her patients even at the peak of the pandemic)

What about people like me and DH in essential jobs working crazy hours (because the pandemic made work more complex and critical) but somehow having to care for and homeschool our kids? We survived on 5 hours sleep a night for long stretches in order to juggle work and kids.

I agree, life isn't totally shit for me and I earn £24k a year as a single parent! I do get UC top ups but certainly not topping my wage up to £80k or even £40k! I have cheap rent though as I live in housing association. I don't have loads of savings or a massive pension but I'm certainly not starving, and I can afford luxuries and holidays.

@SweetSakura

I am so sorry that you lost some sleep.

We had a relative that lost their life as self employed - committed suicide as no way to provide for four children.

We lost our home. I am now permanently disabled due to lack of access to medical treatment as operations cancelled.

Nurses are now degree educated are they not? Anyone in a medical or biological science discipline will have been very aware of increasing incidence of communicable diseases and pandemic risk since 90s… all very well known what they are signing up for; just the same as a fireman or police man is aware their job comes with an element of risk that can increase or diminish over time. Fatality rate for covid was 1-2% mainly concentrated in the elderly and clinically vulnerable. By the point of the second lockdown a highly efficacious vaccine had been delivered to 90% of the population.

We have a very good idea about what life was like for essential workers as the entirety of our social group and my family fall into that category.

I presume you were paid for overtime that you carried out?

My DH had to undertake night work in a less skilled job just to get us through and do unpaid work just to ensure the staff under his management would be catered for whenever they returned to work.

Respectfully you can take your Hahahas and shove them. YOU have no idea.

I didn't just "lose some sleep". The stress and trauma was immense. Different people struggled in different ways. You sound like you don't want to accept that. That's on you. I can recognise it was hard to be without work even as I also know it was incredibly hard and traumatic to deal with what many medics and others had to deal with. It isnt a competition. The pandemic was hard for different people in different ways. You claimed working people had it easy. Some did. Many didn't .

But you clearly don't want to know. You just want a self pitying echo chamber

@SweetSakura

The topic of this thread is a teacher and NHS worker complaining about their 80k income and that it isn’t enough to cope or buy an ice cream.

I found this unpalatable having seen people struggle really hard financially, ourselves included, over the pandemic only a short while ago.

OP hasn’t had to deal with any of that and is throwing hands up at the first sign of an issue. Despite having a comfortable salary and privilege.

My “claim” is that financially, people like OP were prioritised, have benefitted massively due to that and are in a better position to weather the CoL storm currently as a result. Anyone who was an essential worker has a lot to be grateful for that their finances were not ruined and I don’t know what they have to complain about in all honesty (financially).

This does not negate people having difficult emotional experiences, health issues or mental health problems no matter their position over the pandemic.

This thread relates to finances.

Again, I’m presuming you had financial benefit from all the overtime you did and weren’t just worked to the bone for free?

It is not a competition, but I really don’t know how you can put lost sleep (I sleep 4-6hrs a night most of the time btw) in the same bracket as a suicide really and truly. Bizarre.