What's the optimum working week?

[witmum]

What is the optimum working pattern to juggle pick up/drop off and school holidays? I just can't work it out.

This is my last year before DS starts school and I potentially need to apply to change my working pattern. My employer is flexible but I am in a senior management role.

I currently work 30 hours over 4.5 days. I think I could reduce to 27 without any concern but i need as much annual leave as possible.

DH can do the majority of drop offs but there are weeks her is away with work.

Family may be able to help with holidays and holiday clubs.

Agggghhhhh I can't to the maths.

Say you reduced to 27.5, that's 5.5 hours a day, so you might be able to do all drop off and pick ups (depending on what time DS's school finishes and how long it takes for you to get there from work). So you wouldn't need after school care but you would need holiday care 5 days a week.

Or how about you work 2 long days, 2 short days and he goes to after school club twice a week?

Id be looking at some sort of wraparound provision? Id maybe look at after school so you have that in place then you retain the flexibility to cover the drop offs when DH is away?

The optimum pattern depends on so many factors it's impossible to say. For me, I do 34 hours in 4 days with a day off on Friday. I do 2 days in the office and 2 wfh but these vary week by week so aren't fixed. Because of the variance, we use wraparound morning and evening Monday - Thursday which is paid for each month but on my WFH days I'll keep my DS at home for breakfast and take him to school myself so he only actually uses the wraparound 2 mornings a week. A few people have said it's a waste of money but it works for us.

How is your annual leave calculated?

Hourly?

None of my combinations until now have been long and short. I will give that a go.

Thanks you

When you know the school look into what wrap around there is that may help with decision (check early about how to book)

look what holiday club provision is available locally too.

I think that is what we will have to do. Pay for the convenience.

I was hoping there was a cheat code on the best working pattern to have and that I had just missed the email.

Hourly for the day so current 8.5 for my 3 long days and 4.5 on my short day.

The school luckily offer both but it is trying to get the balance of day annual leave and hours at work right at the moment to try to get the optimum balance.

How far from school are you?
8-3 4 days/week?

15 min drive. Can't walk it.

I am not sure that help the holiday situation?

My work allow me to condense my school hours days into longer days in the holidays so I don't need as much childcare. Is that something you could ask about?

I think I could. That would be a really positive solution I had not thought of that adjustment.

I do a 9 day fortnight, but the 9th day can be worked flexibly (senior enough to be trusted with this). So I may work a Sunday and Monday evening instead of during the working day. I tend to find my job is naturally busy May and June, so I often work full time those months but then take off the overworked time in the summer holidays.

What time does the school gate open and you can leave ?

First school DS1 went to it was 8:45 and 8:55
Second one a more enlightened headteacher had 8:30 and 8:40 so if I drove like a mad woman I could be at work by 9:00-9:15 depending on traffic. Had to leave at 2:35 to be confident of a 3:00 pickup (thank god for after school clubs)

My point being that a 25 hour week is doable depending on your commute.

If you have a child who is happy in wraparound (and in my experience and that of my friends, most are) then I would focus on being present at work - especially in a senior role - and get my balance by negotiating additional unpaid annual leave (don’t forget parental leave entitlement) to enjoy more time in the holidays. I’d do that either by “buying” annual leave if your company offers that, or agreeing that you work a 4.5 day a week contract but work 5 days building up TOIL for those additional annual leave days.

Rolling start from 8:30 to 3:30 is the standard day.

Then there is an after school and breakfast club.

It is possible with holiday club as well but I want to be realistic and plan using my holiday in the first instance incase we can't get a place.

I am sure we can come to a pragmatic solution but wanted to check options. My employer is reasonable.

At the moment I don't work Mondays which means I miss out of bank holiday which is technically not to my benefit though it works so I just was hoping that there was an optimum working week to be all things to all people 😬!

I do two short days and two normal days. during the holidays I work in the evening quite a bit and take a lot of flexi days on my short days. I also tend to take a week of unpaid parental leave in the summer hols - either first or last week as they usually span two months pay windows so monthly wage isn't impacted that much.

A lot of people with school aged kids in my workplace have a term time contract if that is an option for you? It wouldn't work well with my role but can for some people.

I used to do 30 hours over 5 days and take the shortest possible lunch break, I lived close to school and work at the time and could just about manage drop off and pick up.

I had an annualised hours contract so on days when my then DH was available I'd do extra hours at work to give me some flexibility.

Hope this helps:

• Sample Weekly Schedule:Monday to Friday:Work Hours: 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM (6 hours per day)
• Consider negotiating with your employer for flexibility in start and end times to accommodate pick-up and drop-off responsibilities.
• Childcare Arrangements:
• Drop-off: 8:00 AM - 8:30 AMYour spouse or family member drops off your child at school/nursery.
• Pick-up: 3:30 PM - 4:00 PMYou or your spouse picks up your child from school/nursery.
• Monday, Wednesday, and Friday:Childcare Support:Your spouse handles drop-offs and picks-ups on these days.
• If your spouse is away, arrange for alternative childcare support or explore options such as carpooling with other parents.
• Tuesday and Thursday:Childcare Support:Utilize external childcare services or enlist the help of family members for drop-offs and pick-ups on these days.

When mine were younger I had to still do full time hours, when I changed roles they insisted I was in five days a week (previous role was full time in 4 days) so I did longer days Mon-Wed and finished at 2:30 Thur & Fri so could do pick up. Then in summer holidays for around 3-4 of the weeks, I booked Thur & Fri off. This used less holidays then full days so could basically have three days off for the ‘price’ of 2. Really helped with holiday care and the days they were in holiday clubs / childminders. I was getting a full days care.

I used to do 80% FTE which was:

• two full days (kids' dad picked them up one day, and after school club did the other)
• two 9-3pm days, doing full drop off and pick up
• a few hours from home on the 5th day, to make up for the early finishes.

Was great for the kids as they were picked up 4 days a week at 3.15, so lots of opportunities for play dates, out of school clubs or just flopping at home if they were tired. And good for work because I was able to deal with any urgent emails etc 5 days a week.

I do two long days (7.5) and 3 short (5.5). On the 5.5 hour days I can be there for pick up and drop off. Longer allows me to go into the office easily if I need to.

5x 5.5 hour days would be my ideal but I would struggle to get my work done in that time.

What we did is my OH worked FT day time and was able to drive to work and back and they did flexi hours but were not allowed to work from home as pooters were just appearing.

I worked from home day-time doing working from home on peanutes but then when mu OH came home, i took the car and left for work - from 6pm until 11-1130 - we did this for a few years until kids went to school full time - it was hard work but we did not want to leave kids with stranger and our parents lived miles away

these days working from home makes life much easier - so work from home on flexi hours

We have a childminder for wrap around care, she does pick ups and drop offs at school too. So we just drop off there around 8am and pick up around 5pm.

She also covers school holidays.

We use Ordinary Parenting Leave or annual leave if/when she's not available.

Our eldest hasn't started school yet so is still with her full time right now. But we'll be switching to the above set-up as of September. I think it'll work out as 3 hours per day which I suspect will be around £18 but I'm not sure.

It means we can both work full time and whilst life is still hectic and we feel like we're always rushing to get somewhere, it's a really good set up.

Thank you. This is a really helpful thread for me to work out the combination that works best for our situation.

We have family willing to help as well but they live 2 hours away so it will be for a week in. The holidays rather than wrap around support. Until now nursery has given us a lot of flexibility on managing our time.