To ask if you work full or part time and the reasons why?

[BabyNextYear25]

My sister received news today she would not be able to return to work full time as there isn't capacity. She was a little annoyed as her youngest will be in school and she's bored at home.
It got me thinking, the vast majority of my female friends and family work part time. It would be my dream to work part time but it's not feasible at the moment. Um curious to see how many women work part time, and what is there reason behind it? But also full time as well.
My reason is simple- I was single parent and I couldn't pay my mortgage on one wage.

Full time at the moment. I worked part time between the ages of 26 and 40. At first it was because I was doing a degree on the side, so two days a week I was studying, but after I got finished with that, I had my kids. With the amount I earned I wouldn't have been able to afford childcare. I did continue working because I am in a profession that values recent experience, so I wanted continuity, but for five years I went down to just one day a week. I love my job but that was really too little - you can't do much that's substantial when it's only one day. And obviously the pay was peanuts.

I went back to full-time in 2020 and I confess I feel it's been bad for my mental and physical health; I hadn't realised how helpful it is occasionally to be able to do stuff on a weekday. I'm constantly tired and don't get enough exercise. But the role I am in now has enough workload that it really has to be full-time. I would love a job share or to reduce it to three days, and I've talked about it with my boss, but I doubt it will happen.

I’ve done a variety since having my daughter. I used to work permanent nights, 3 on 3 off. I tried returning to that after maternity but my husband couldn’t cope (very nervous parent & PTSD) so moved to days on very reduced hours. We couldn’t cope financially. I then changed jobs completely & took an apprenticeship type job in the NHS. It was crap money, fulltime with one day at college. The hours were a nightmare but we got through it with help from my parents & two days at a childminder. Once qualified I moved to another NHS Trust where I worked 4 long days with a day off with her, 4 other days in preschool. Not getting home until 7pm was hard, she wouldn’t settle until 9pm gone. Once she started school I’ve switched to 5 days but finish in time to collect her from school. Husband does getting her ready in the morning & school drop off. I work 32.5 hours & if I did fulltime she’d have to go into after school club so any more wages earned would go straight to that so no benefit at the moment. I think it’s really hard for mum’s to find a situation that works for everyone.

part time as I have 2 DC with SN, one is severely disabled and there is no holiday club or wrap around childcare. plus endless appointments :(

4 days at only 5 hours per day here.

DH has good pay and we bought our house in cash due to a very unexpected inheritance. We could probably get a bigger house and fancier stuff if I worked full time but we prefer it this way.

I work part time (2 days a week but in a quite demanding job) and school aged children. I really don’t understand how anyone could be bored at home with a house and family to look after?
Is financially difficult at times but the stress of trying to juggle extra hours just isn’t worth it. I did work full time when older kids were younger but was single parent and they went to ex at weekends so had 2 days a week kid free which made it manageable

Full time in one job (37hours) and part time in a second job (0 hours contract but work
between 15-40 hours a week depending on the week).

reasons - I love both my jobs. My second job is more of a hobby, and a very big part of being me. But it’s a paid job we can’t really afford to drop lol.

I’m currently 29 weeks pregnant, so I will be going back to both part time, 30 hours a week at the first and then 8-12 a week at the second. So I will technically still work full time.

If we won the lottery I would keep both. But drop to 3 days a week at job 1, and not work every week at job 2. Just the weeks I like!

Self-employed and work approx 30 hours each week. Currently tempted to increase hours to bump up pay before TTC, but people who say they'd be bored without work baffle me - I thoroughly enjoy my work and get a lot of fulfillment from it, but also from my hobbies, spending time with friends (many of my friends have varying shift patterns so my flexibility helps), volunteering, and being able to keep on top of life admin without being exhausted. I don't see how that's all possible with FT work and certainly not with children and limited childcare support.

Part-time. I part own a small business and we can't afford to pay me very much right now so I wouldn't get any more money for full time and wouldn't be able to afford full time nursery for DD (aged 2). But I can't get a second job as business needs me to be flexible at times.

I also have an older DC who is roughly 60/40 with me and his Dad and it helps a lot to see him a bit extra after school as I'm his main emotional support (good relationship with Dad, just not as close). I'll rethink when DD is at school in nearly 2 years time or if the business goes downhill!

Full-time- (own my own business) but only work school-hours so I can taxi my kids to/from school. DH works FT and works away M-F

I went back part time after my son was born.
Partly I wanted the time with him and also financially full time didn't make sense. I work 3 full days and if I did full time with nursery I would be less then £50 a month better off so didn't feel worth it

Full-time. Love my job - very fulfilling/stimulating and can’t really be done part-time anyway.

I love being busy and pack a lot into my weekends so don’t feel like I miss out on hobbies or anything.

I work part time because we have young kids and it’s not worth the stress or money to put them in clubs all the time. My youngest would hate it particularly. Also for my mental health, full time would be too much. Once they are older I will have the freedom to work more hours.

Part time. We could do with the money but i love getting peace to myself.

Full time, for feminist reasons. I did not want to be in the position of having a "little job" whilst husband had a "big important job".

Also liked the cushion of two full time salaries - money is very useful!

Also, personal satisfaction. I always wanted to have a career and work my way up the ladder. I get a lot of enjoyment from my job (lawyer). Take my hat off to SAHPs but that was definitely not the right choice for me!

No regrets. Has worked out fine.

Part time/ nearly full time depending on the week. I do and evening, sleep, and morning in one go twice a week that equals about 33 hours a week then occasionally work the odd 4 hour shift on top of that.

It's a pretty unique role in it's hours and they work well for me- if I was working 9-5 days I would only be able to do about 16 hours a week. I am a student and a single parent. Fortunately we live with family so the extra money being earned now is being put away for once I have finished my degree to go towards a deposit on a house. I don't need to work that much to live now but I am doing so whilst I can to build up my savings.

FT - a) I enjoy it, b) I need the £££

Full time. Single and ain’t no one else gonna pay my bills.

In addition, I’ve never met or worked with a part time worker in my industry. Not in 25 years.

Some situations are simply not comparable. A single income household where the house was bought at a fraction of the cost of homes now, and where the burden of the cost was met by a joint income/spousal maintenance is very very different to a recently purchased home on a single income. In the first example, I would expect said homeowner to be working less than four days if intelligent financial planning had been made.

Work life balance is hugely important, as is paying the bills at the end of the month, having not had the benefit of someone doing that for me for most of my adult life. I always found scrounging and living off others in very bad taste.

30 hours a week to allow for school pick up etc

Went part time after having my first daughter then became a sahm when I had my son. Did that for 10yrs then went back to work Full time in 2019.

I often think of where my career would be now had I stayed working full time, but I loved being off with the 3 kids when they were young. But once all were in full time school in 2017 I just got fed up and felt like I was sponging off DH. So am glad I went back to work as our quality of life is so much better now.

I’m considered part time but I work Monday - Thursday 9-5. I have two children. I only work 4 days a week because I simply just can’t afford to put the kids into nursery for another half/full day. It’s not feasible.

Eldest is off to school this September and my youngest will be entitled to the new 15 hours funding for working parents in April so I’ll be looking to go back full time then.

Full time plus. We don’t ’need’ the money but I prefer to maximise my earnings because I work in an industry which is very cyclical. Rainy day fund is an absolute must. I like the idea of FIRE but I’m planning to retire in my 50s but be able to still provide financial support to my kids who will be in their early 20s then.

I'd do the same if I won!

Full time for the past 10 years. I love my job and I'm very well paid - and I know from experience that if I were to drop a day I'd be cooking, doing laundry, etc.

Why swap a day's paid work for unpaid work?

I haven’t RTFT, so apologies if someone else has said anything similar.

I’m a single parent of 2 girls aged 14. I work part time, Monday-Thursday, 9-3. I took the job because it fit around school hours, and although it’s a 40 minute commute, the school is en route so I could drop off and pick up, which saved my girls an hour bus ride each way. It also gave me more time with my girls which we all appreciated. The pay is not the best, but I got UC top-ups and housing benefit, so it worked out ok. But my girls moved in with their dad about 8 months ago, so obviously I no longer get much in the way of benefits, and I’m finding things a bit tight. I enjoy my job, it’s fun and my colleagues are nice, but I think I might have to find something else. There aren’t any extra hours available at work so that’s not an option. I think full-time will be a bit much both mentally and physically (I have a lot of stressful family stuff going on which normally takes up my Fridays, and I have some age-related health problems) but I guess I will just have to suck it up. Although my food/heating etc costs have come down considerably, my rent is more than my monthly salary, and my travel costs are quite high. I had some savings from when my mum passed but they have dwindled down to almost nothing over the last few months and I have got to the point when I’m starting to worry. So I guess I’m going to have to either find another part time gig to top up my earnings or look for something full time, which at my age (60) might not be that easy.

So, long story short (oops, too late!) working part time was ideal for me, but it isn’t any more, and I now need to work full time again.

I used to work full then part time now i dont work at all.
My 2 adult children work full time.