What jobs do people do to be around kids as much possible

[Haloween]

I am looking at what jobs people do to make sure they have got lots of time around kids especially if one partner works full time and can have a comfortable life together but the other partner wants to be independent and not be a SAHP?

Following

your own kids or other people's kids?
childminding

Childminder or being your child’s class teacher.

Around your own kids.

Work part time somewhere that flexible working is allowed.
I have been able to do school runs when DD was little and be around more when she was a teen.
Has meant my earnings were hit but it was worth it.

I work reduced hours (30) so get to pick up from school. In an office based job with a company that supported flexible working.
I probably could have reduced more but we couldnt take the financial hit any lower.

Shift work. My neighbour does nursing but does 2-3 long shifts including most weekends. So she barely sees her husband but she does see the kids for 4-5 days.

It’s not a life I’d want but it works for some. In her case it is practical as they have 3 under 3 (inc twins) so it makes financial sense to avoid paid childcare.

Maybe a controversial comment but I work in a cmht as a trained nurse. We run our own diaries so the whole team does school drop off/pick up for their own DC and can go to assemblies etc. working hours are Mon-Fri 9-5

Before children I worked in retail management 40hrs a week.

once I had our children I worked in hospitality, 20 hrs a week, in the evening, which meant I could be at home during the day and then dh was home in the evening. I did that for 18years. I’ll be eternally grateful that we could afford for me to cut my hours to be at home with our children.

my friend worked in the care sector in the night when her dh was home and she was home during the day, though sleeping was an issue for her at times.

I’m wondering this too.
I’m currently on maternity leave and I’m looking at either getting a new job or just leaving completely for a couple of years.
The nursery fees where I live would leave me with £100 of my wages left. It just seems completely pointless to work just to pay for childcare.
At the same time, I’ve never been out of full-time work so it scares me (would I feel out of touch with society/how would I get back into work etc.)

Unless you live on a tiny remote island where there are only half a dozen kids in total, no school would ever put a teacher's own child in their class.

I work evenings in domiciliary care. I work generally 6-11pm so get to be at home all day during the school holidays. I leave for work after I’ve made the kids their tea when their dad (wfh) finishes and he does the bedtime stuff. I dislike working every other weekend as in my company, and for me personally, I have to do too many weekend hours, but it all works well generally.

@xOlive might you be better off if you calculate nursery fees as a shared expense between you and your partner rather than just coming out of your salary? (Assuming you have a partner). That’s the fairer way to do it and would likely make work seem more financially worthwhile for you .you may find it’s still not affordable /doesn’t seem worth it and if you want to stop work that’s obviously completely up to you and a totally valid choice but this calculation based on your wage alone shouldn’t be the motivation in my opinion.

I've always opted for jobs close to home to minimise commuting, and then requested flexible working to come down to 30-32 hours a week, so that I was able to pick up and collect children from school most days without major impact on my career.

I’m a writer / editor and work from home for various clients (freelance). Very well paid and I am around the kids around school so for me it’s a perfect balance. I occasionally go into London for meetings / events which keeps me connected to the corporate world

I worked in a hotel when my children were young. Started just Saturdays and it gradually increased to 4/5 days a week as they grew up. I mostly worked the early shift 7-3pm so I could pick the children up from school. ExH would take them to school or breakfast club if he needed to be at work earlier. At weekends (when my children had sport on Saturday mornings) I used to request the late shift.

It did mean working weekends and some shifts, of course but not every weekend.

Worked very well indeed. The hotel was 1 minute's walk from my children's primary. I also did some work from home for my old boss, too.

I worked in education which became utterly miserable and didn't fit around my own children as I was so emotionally and mentally drained from dealing with other people's children, not to mention a toxic SLT and generally shitty attitudes from parents towards staff/the profession in general. Nowhere near as family-friendly as you'd think either because it's not 9am to 3pm with all the weekends, evenings, and school holidays off like people seem to think it is.

I now work in the education team of a well-known heritage and culture organisation developing and delivering learning programmes at our venues. It's less hours but more money, no classroom, no SLT, etc. They're really flexible so I'm able to finish by 3pm, work days from home if I don't need to be on site, term time only as others in the team do the school holidays sessions, time off for dependents (e.g., sick child) and overall they're just much more accommodating of work-life balance.

I think that's the most important thing when looking at jobs that will suit, not so much the sector or role, but more the employers overall ethos and flexibility.

This happens all the time where I live. I'm in the midlands/Wales border. In my DDs school (200 pupils) several teachers have/have had their child in their class, and it's the same in other local schools (I was a teacher and know lots of them locally).
I don't think it's the best for the child but good teachers are gold and many schools won't change a teacher's year group just to avoid it.

Op I have very flexible WFH job that allows me to do the school run. I used to do 30 hrs and do pick up every day as well but now I'm full time I can't do that (can't work with the kids in the house!) but I still get to see them for a good chunk of the day (they get up before 6 so I feel like I've lived a day before the school run sometimes!)

WFH for a non-uk company so v flexible hours

I’m in sales so worked the hours my kids were in school then some evenings, but could do school runs, plays, activities etc. no weekend work

They are older teens now and working, but I love the flexible hours still!

I have a part-time admin job in a school office; term time only so all holiday off aside from a couple of inset days.
Pay is the sacrifice though, as its pro-rata'd for being part time and term-time only. I wish I'd built a proper career before kids so I could do part-time at a decent hourly rate.

I was a Teaching Assistant while my DC were small. It was in a local school, and mornings only so I could do drop offs and pick ups and be around in the school holidays.

The pay was awful though!

Flexi-time, wfh helps as you would be working when they are in school. The problem lies with When your dc are not in school yet. You either work opposite your partner or try to work with your dc at home with you…which is ridiculous, you can’t be present when trying to do both.

I have a flexible role but it's full time.