To find working part time hard?

[Nosleepclub13]

Before I start, I know I'm very lucky to not have to work full time.

I'm really struggling with my PT job. I've got two girls, age 4&3. 4 year old will go to primary in September.

Before I had children I worked a 40 hour week no problem, Monday to Friday with some occasional extra hours on the weekend too.

Since having the kids I just can't seem to manage. My MH is shocking. I work 9:30-2 Monday to Friday, and initially I figured this would work well around drop off/pick up etc. which it does, I'm lucky that they don't go to before/after school etc. But I find everything so manic. Every morning is a rush, never out of the house on time, feel like I'm constantly running around getting them where they need to be then rushing to work. At the moment the girls are at different nurseries, but also will be next year when my eldest goes to school anyway. So I'm doing two sets of school runs every day. And this is all before I've even got to work I'm stressed. I'm just finding it all so stressful. Does anyone else feel like this or am I just not managing it well? My partner works full time and when I was off when the girls were younger we used to get a UC top up which we now don't get because I'm working, but when my youngest turned 3 I was informed that I'd need to go back to work, and sort of rushed in a panic into the first job I was offered that I thought might work. But it's just not for me at all. Feel really ridiculous as it's such a small amount of hours, but because it's every week day I feel I never get a break from the chaos of it all. I now can't leave without something to go to but equally anything that is going to allow me to do the school run is every day so I feel I'd be moving from one problem to another.

Sorry, rant over 😔 not sure what I'm after, maybe just that it's not just me 😂

When my dc were little I was working 3.5 dpw, I found the 0 5 day by far the most stressful day of my week! No suggestions behind what others have suggested. It does get better tho, much better, they are both now at secondary and I'm working more hours, soooook much easier

“Good enough” is what you have to get used to being when you’re a working parent. You no longer have the headspace to be genuinely good at anything, only good enough to muddle through until the children are older.

Working part time is hard. Where l work they try to "forget" l do half the hours everyone else does and if l am not careful get double the work and half the time. I think a re-shuffle of your hours could be helpful e.g. l do not work on a Tuesday so spend it doing appointments for me or them, a batch cook, trip to the park, soft play etc so a mix of fun and chores. But my children are younger than your and both nap which is super helpful. Your husband needs to do more which is often the case with these sorts of posts. He needs to do some of the pick ups and drop offs, plus his share of house stuff

I totally agree, my DD does 2 long days and a 9.30-2.30 day at nursery. The 9.30-2.30 day is by far the most stressful day of the week. You don't have a chance to breathe, school run, nursery run, work (but not enough time to really get into anything) back to nursery, back to school then evening routine. I have zero intentions of spreading my hours over 5 days once my youngest starts school. Yes, I'll need to pay for wrap around care 2 days a week but I think that's a fair trade off for a better balance in my life.

I think Mental Health is any excuse for just normal life stresses now. Never heard such loony, Where will this end?

If you find it a hard life with children I can offer you a very easy option. just do not have them! There you are! Free advice! Blimey!

"Since having the kids I just can't seem to manage" - this is the problem

We all have ‘mental health’. It’s on a continuum from good mental health to bad mental health and fluctuates depending on a number of factors. Fact.

Sorry if this isn’t helpful at all, but this reminds me of me when my children were younger. They are both much older now, one already at university and the second going in September. I think back to days like this and would love to go back and just have one more, it would be chaos pretty much every morning! Two different schools to get them to and getting them out of the house in the morning felt like such a struggle every day. (I also worked part time 9-3 every day).

I started making up new words to pop songs to sing to them to get them to hurry up and get moving, rather than shouting at them and nagging them every morning to get ready.

One of our favourites was to the song by Robbie Williams ‘Candy’ and went like this…

‘Hey ho kids let’s go
stop being so chuffing slow
get your shoes on so we can go
we’ve got to get to school now’

It actually started making the mornings much more fun and the kids even started singing the song themselves and laughing and smiling whilst they were getting ready.