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.

@Pssspsss if we are really lucky hopefully we will be enjoying our retirement while looking after our grandkids! 😀 be nice to revisit the places my children have grown out of. My parents are essential part of my children's lives, it's what everyone involved wants, it's quite normal where we live, lots of grandparents at the school, very few childlcare pick ups, so feels the norm to me. I hope i will be able to do the same one day.

That’s very noble of you but I don’t feel any parent should feel obliged to sacrifice the retirement they were looking forward to in order to save their kids a bit of cash. Totally different if my child was ill for a while and couldn’t care for their child or temporarily let down with child care

Would hardly say noble and it’s really not just about saving them a bit of cash. If it’s a choice between my child and grandchild keeping their head above water or living comfortably, having a good quality of life and being able to build their own nest egg for their futures then I’d rather the latter and if that means helping them out with childcare then so be it. Childcare fees aren’t “just a bit of cash” they are a considerable % of some peoples income

God ‘just abit of cash’ how out of touch do you need to be!

Big childcare fees are for about 3 years max though. When they start school they drop a lot. It's temporary.

I’m a single parent and now work part time even though it means I have to claim benefits. I live in a rural area and there is no childcare here after 5pm which means I have to finished before then, previously I sometimes leaving for work in the mornings knowing I had no one to pick my kids up from childcare at 5pm and just phoning to tell them I’d be late once it was too late for them to do anything about it which was really unfair on them but I was in such a stressful situation just trying to keep my job.

My daughter also has a chronic health condition and when I was working longer hours her health needs were being neglected because I was taking so much time off every time she was in hospital that it was difficult also getting time off to get her to routine appointments. She once ended up in hospital because I had no one to pick a prescription up from the chemist while I was at work, this was really the final straw for me going part time and claiming UC .

Part time-initially because of having children but now it’s because I don’t feel l can work in my profession full time and retain my sanity.

Perhaps things will change with a new government, but not the way things are currently. It’ll screw my pension though but at the moment it’s pension v my mental health. Luckily we have paid of the mortgage, which helps.

Unfortunately I'm not the only one. The place is a sinking ship and it seems that staff retention has completely bypassed them, as something they could improve upon.