Is this a good idea or am I being too precious?

[brealsp]

So far I have managed to have a day off one day a week with my child. This has been using annual leave. When they turn two my holiday allowance runs out. I don’t want them in full time childcare at age two, it seems so young. Would you ask for a temporary change in contact so you work four days a week for a year? My concern is that it’s my pension and savings etc that will be hit while DP continues as he is. Am I being silly to do this? Will it even benefit my child much?

Can you compress your hours into 4 days?

@YouAndMeAndThem no, potentially 4.5 over 4 but not 5 over 4

I'd do it. Before you know it your child will be at school. I don't think the pensions hit will be too significant.

Can he compress his hours to 4.5 days too or use his annual leave?

But 2 is absolutely fine and quite normal to be in childcare so I wouldn’t panic if you have no other option.

Is your job the type you leave at the office at the end of each day or the type that never stops? If the latter, then taking a pay cut to do 80% time often doesn't help because people still implicitly expect you to do 100% of the work.

DD will be fine if she has full time nursery. It is very common so don't worry about it.

Can you and DH both take compressed hours and alternate week by week who has a day at home with DD?

If it’s affordable for you then go for it.
In the grand scheme of a 40+ year working life 2 years reduction of 25% of your pension and NI isn’t a big deal.

Depending on the way you split your finances you could agree that DP contributes half what you would lose to savings for you? You would be saving childcare costs after all.

Is dp your child's dad? If so you should be a team so decide together whether your combined salary will be enough and also whether the overall hit to both your pensions is absorbable. I suspect the answer is that you'll have enough money and the pension will be okay, but it sounds like you're trying to shoulder this alone.

Final thought is that maintaining your career is very unlikely to be affected by a day's drop for a few years so you will hopefully not lose out in the long term for having taken the time for your child now. I'd do it if you can.

It’s not “too precious” to want to spend more time with your two year old.
YANBU.

Thanks. Im worried about raising it in case they reject it. Then I will feel awful if they are making me do the full week as I know in my heart of hearts I don’t want to miss out on my child like that. Im dreading raising it

Hi, rather than temporarily reducing your hours, it may be more beneficial to apply for 1 day per week parental leave. Although parental leave is unpaid, this way your annual leave allowance wouldn't be reduced. If you just reduce your weekly hours, your leave allowance would be reduced pro rata also.

Just to add, you're entitled to 18 weeks parental leave per child by law so your employer can't refuse to give this to you

@wannabebetter thanks! I thought you had to take that in week long batches though?

Could you and your husband both work 9/10 days and get every other Friday each?

But if you want a day off a week and you can afford it, then ask. It’s a nice thing. 😍

Maybe take the parental leave instead of A/l then and use your A/l once a week? Although that’s not enough.

So what's husband doing with his annual leave?

@Luddite26 we are not married. He does use some for our child but not on a regular basis. He wouldn’t want a day a week with them but I do

@wannabebetter correct - as per the govt website, you have to take it in week chunks:

Entitlement
Parental leave is unpaid. You’re entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child, up to their 18th birthday.
The limit on how much parental leave each parent can take in a year is 4 weeks for each child (unless the employer agrees otherwise).
You must take parental leave as whole weeks (eg 1 week or 2 weeks) rather than individual days, unless your employer agrees otherwise or if your child is disabled. You don’t have to take all the leave at once.
A ‘week’ equals the length of time an employee normally works over 7 days.

It's week long periods or shorter by agreement. Most employers would agree shorter & it's common to take as 1 day per week - in fact is preferable to many employers as creates less impact / disruption to the business than week long blocks

I think many people do this, it's completely reasonable

What does DP think if he wanted to go on a family holiday but you have no annual leave left.?

@wannabebetter where does it say this? I think they would look at this if they could reference the entitlement

@JamSlags yes, as per your quote "unless your employer agrees otherwise" vast majority will agree otherwise & it's very common for PL to be taken as one or two days per week as causes minimal disruption

I have a friend who does 9/10 days, so a day off once a fortnight

Really sorry but I just don’t understand the set up (totally me), why only one day a week? Why don’t you have two days off?

@stayathomer because I like working too