What are the totally flexible jobs? Do they exist?

[HolyGrailSeeker]

Since having DC1, I have not worked. But now, with DC1 at school, and DC2 starting in childcare for a couple of days a week, the luxury of being a SAHM is hitting its expiry date, and it’s time for me to start working again.

But here is the conundrum:

• No family nearby to help with childcare
• DH works extremely long hours, and often has to go away for the night/week with only a few hours notice. So I need to be entirely flexible/available to do every drop off/pick up/taking to afterschool activities.
• Hours I could work: (max 3 days a week) 9am-2pm, maybe 1-2 days a week I could do 9-5pm. But ideally a totally flexible job and I could do some extra hours when children asleep / at the weekend.
• I love love love being a Mum, and don’t want to go down the getting a nanny/au pair route. I love the time I get to spend with my children and want to protect the afterschool time with DC1 for at least 2 days a week and really don’t want DC2 in childcare for more than 3 days a week.
• Live in London so childcare is expensive so need to be earning more than spending on any additional childcare. Looking for a take home of £1000pcm as a minimum so maybe £25+ p/h.
• 2:1 from a top university - social sciences degree
• extremely low self confidence right now due to toxic environment and negative experiences at job pre-DC. Returning to that industry not an option as it was extremely un-family friendly (and I hated it).
• open to studying for a new qualification if necessary, but ideally I would be able to start earning something sooner rather than later.
• ideally WFH / very local for most of the time.

What job can I do? I’m at a total loss as to where to start looking. No idea too crazy (although keep it legal please and I have no interest in doing anything X-rated!)

I’d love to hear what flexible jobs others do that fit my criteria and how you got into it.

Thank you!

Field interviewer for the office of national statistics? I’ve done this previously and it’s actually works really well around children. Essentially you get your quota then make your own hours to meet your contract starts at 22 hours. You need to be a bit flexible as trying to catch people at home so I’d often do one evening or a sat morning/ afternoon but you can choose a different one each week. Admin stuff is done at home (about a third of your hours) so great for when kids in bed.

Annualised hours so you get paid a regular wage although actual hours worked varied a bit. Great job for just having last minute days off due to kids being ill for a day.

Pros, very flexible hours you can make all the pick ups, after school activities etc. You work from home so paid commute from your house. Civil service pension. Promotion opportunities within wider civil service. Easy job if you have a ready smile and the ability to chat to people

Cons, wages are not great £12-£13 ph but obviously paid travel, subsistence for meals. I think it’s s good flexible, filler job tbh.

Use your experience and then look in to company’s you’d be qualified to work for who offer flexible working. I work in Marketing, super busy really worried I’d never get back in to it after kids but my company offers flex working, core hours 10-3. It means I can drop off, and pick up (if I leg it 🤣 but I’ve not been late yet!)

Thank you, lots to consider in here.
Great to know that your friend has the kind of work/life balance even as a project lead that I am after.

Agree with a business I would need to be passionate about it. Had not ever considered buying a business, but that’s a great idea to look into.

I'm not sure how well it pays but I always think our staff canteen would be an okay place to work - it closes at 2pm so no danger of having to stay late. It's not flexible exactly but it also hasn't got the potential to keep you trapped there until 7pm.

Yes something with “core hours” would be ideal!

Ubereats delivery - you can just switch it off when you aren’t available. You have to consider your fuel and insurance though (unless using a bike).

thank you. I need to think hard about if I want a job where I could always be doing more (emails, working late etc) or one where I just leave and am done. I remember the days of getting trapped in the office until really late and it was awful.

That sounds perfect, I’ll look into charity sector jobs too.

Become a childminder. You could have 1 child full time and do a before and after school run to top up you, having the children for an hour before school and walk to school and then pick up and have for like an hour. When I did it, I did a 12 week course through the local council but I am sure there are some you can do online - very little set up costs, no childcare to pay for, no worrying about not being there for the children, win, win

It can be useful though as you could have 2-3 children and have your youngest stay at home - you save on your youngest’s fees, they are being delivered the curriculum and also being socialised in sharing etc) and then you charge £5-7.50/hr per child. You can pick and choose your client children after taster sessions to get a sense of which ones mesh with your child (and which parents may be a hassle). You get to claim back a percentage of heating/utilities and ‘rent’ if you use one room for your business, costs of toys that your child might also get value from become tax deductible costs to the business and can therefore end up not paying any tax.

Your children have ready made playmates in the garden. I found that for the after school group, all being 5-8 years old, they entertained themselves and I only had to set up craft activities that I would supervise if they fancied it (usually on a theme that flowed for the half term to meet Ofsted curricular criteria), fed them a proper meal and then sat and read books with them towards home time. I was lucky though, only had one difficult child. I still see the mums now as friends and though one is 13, she pops in for tea sometimes!

It could be tiring, but the kids were lovely and it was an easy way to generate a decent wage on PT hours for the time I did it. I wouldn’t dismiss it, but you need to be realistic about what’s involved. It would set you up very nicely for training in teaching in 5 years time if you fancied it - I’m opting to teach 16+ but my childcare credentials demonstrate that I have ‘done something’ while raising children, am used to admin/regulatory oversight and clearly enjoy being around young children/people. I know it’s helped get me back into the work place after 19 years of being a SAHM on paper.

Brilliant idea, thank you! I will look into this.

https://outlier.ai/ might be worth a look.

I am a nurse but only do bank. So it’s like a zero hours contract and I just book shifts through an app - there’s always plenty of shifts to chose from and some weeks I will do several whereas others I will do none (holiday etc).

Where I am, you can do the same as a health care support worker (used to call them auxiliary nurses) and the pay is about £14 an hour and you accrue one hour paid holiday entitlement for every 8 hours you work. You don’t need any particular skills (other than human, interpersonal skills) as they will give you on the job training.

You can do similar via an agency working in care homes/people’s homes. It’s very hard work and not brilliantly paid, but completely flexible.

Thank you

Thanks for sharing your experience and good to know it could be used as a springboard into teaching, I did not know that.

Yes lots of advantages if I went into childminding, it does seem a good fit with what I need.

Try

Charity job.co.uk

Lots of wfh jobs and lots of charities (although not all)with excellent approaches you can flexible working and work life balance.

Thank you (and love the username!)

What do you actually want to do?

The kids won't be young forever so I would think about setting yourself up for the longer term

Lovely way to meet people and not just be ‘someone’s mum’ too - the childminders and nannies at the school gate are really friendly and you find ones to join on park walks/playgroups/coffee mornings. The gossip is golden!! I am still very close friends with a couple of my CM friends (going on hols with one soon as she is slowing down her practice as the last of her charges prepares for school).

If you pop on Facebook there and search your area and ‘childminders’ you will specific pages for CMs in your area and find others who can advise you on how they’re set up, best play groups, which training courses the local council run etc. I found them to be incredibly supportive and welcoming. They will refer parents to you once they get to know you, too.

I'm been a SAHM and in last week I have literally been offered a job that will be within school hours (4 hour shifts between 9-3, company is aiming to keep it 10-2). I have initial training and then will be able to WFH and the company has extensive training opportunities, including studying for a degree alongside working. It's a large insurance company - pay is not amazing but for now worth it for the flexibility. They are out there!

@HolyGrailSeeker i also knew someone in a similar situation to you who became a mortgage advisor. You have to complete a couple of exams which was a few hundred pounds but I think are done online with home study. They worked for a collective called the mortgage mum, you don’t get a salary but make money for every mortgage you process (client fee and bank commission) so entirely up to you how many hours you put in. You do need to have an interest in networking and sales to make it work though.

I only have 2 babies, 1 and 2 days a week respectively. Not advertising for more while I get to grips with it all. Not a long term plan for me, just until youngest is in school probably. I certainly prefer it to the night shifts I used to do! I got talked into it by another childminder I meet at the park, she is now my back up as well. Took months and months to get registered, and I'm still not able to provide funded hours! So if you're considering it, get the ball rolling ASAP but hasn't been expensive, the £600 grant did more or less cover it all so nothing to lose. I do worry about my kids not liking sharing me, but then the alternative is that they would be in childcare.
What am I realising quickly though, is the children are not the hard part for me. It's managing the parents 😂

Childminding could definitely be an option and I had a friend that did this.
Just bear in mind your own children might want you to themselves sometimes, and as they get older it would mean most likely that they couldn’t do activities and clubs after school. Plus if you offer term time only you’ll be cutting down your potential client base but if you do all year round your time off will be limited.

Education -Maybe agency work...supply TA roles. Can do daily supply work, pick 'n choose. Hope helpful :)

I think it’s as much the company as it is the role @HolyGrailSeeker I work 8-4.30 months-Fri but I have flexi time.

I log on at 7 and then I log off at 8:30 and drop my dc to school and go on site for 9 and I can wfh 2-3 days a week also. My dc are a bit older so i sometimes collect them and then work for an hour while they have some downtime. If I am on site I use the Afterschool service.

I work for a large global healthcare company (pharmaceuticals) however they don’t all offer the same flexibility