The age old PT/FT work dilemma

[SadlyNotATroll]

I have two primary aged kids. I work 3 days a week earning £33k a year. I mostly WFH and have a very flexible employer. I always assumed I’d go back up a day or even two a week once the littlest was settled in school but I just don’t want to. However I can’t help but feel it’s selfish and not sure if I’m BU. DH doesn’t care, says do what makes me happy. We are comfortable, he is on £50k a year, our total monthly income is just over £5k a month with fixed outgoings of 2.4.

I can’t help but think though that if I worked full time we’d be able to do more and have more. Not materialistic stuff, but maybe put more aside for the kids in savings, a nicer holiday, just general nicer stuff. I’m not sure I’m making much sense. However, I love working 3 days and spend the other two doing housework, life admin, etc which frees up the weekends for family time.

would love some perspectives

Is the 33k pro rata or your actual salary? ie is that how much you actually earn or do you earn 3/5 of 33k. The reason I ask is that you need to think about pensions, if you’re on 33k for working 3 days a week then assuming you’re in a works pension, you will be accruing a reasonable amount. However if your pension contributions are only based on you earning ~20k then I would be looking to increase my hours for this reason as you will end up without much pension (and certainly a lot less than your DH).

Is there an option to increase to 4 days? You could still have one day to do housework and admin which seems plenty IMO.

If I could have afforded to work 3 days a week when my daughter was in primary school, I would have. It isn’t selfish if it makes life a whole lot easier for you to be mum and look after the house, if that’s what you want. My daughter is 16 and if I could afford to do it now I would, just so I’m not there 5 days a week!

I went up from 30 hours to 33 hours when my kids started senior school, but I've never gone back full time, I'm not sure I ever will (or if I do, it will be so I can drop back down when I get to 60 and one of my pensions starts). We have enough, and I've started putting a decent chunk into an AVC.

My husband went back full time (we both went part time to share the childcare) last year, but does regret it a bit!

I have continued to work 3 days a week and my youngest (of 3) is 9. Most of my friends who were 3 days have gone to 4 days which I think would be a good compromise. I am a teacher and would like to work 4 days but the extra workload would not be proportionate to one extra day's pay.

I worked 3 days a week when DS was in primary school, then went up to 30hrs when he went to secondary. My pension took a hit but it is respectable enough and there are enough years remaining to top it up. I don't regret it for a second, I loved having some extra time for extra curricular activities for ds and the house definitely ran more smoothly.

£33k is my actual salary. I think my FTE is 55ish. I think another advantage too is it means we only have to cover 3 days of childcare in the school hols per week instead of 5.

pension is a great point I hadn’t considered, thank you. I am a civil servant and plan to be until I retire.

Given you’re the higher earner and also pension contributions it would be best for both of you to do 4 days.

If the flexibility is there, I would increase your hours slightly to 28 hours over 4 days (assuming you are currently doing 22.5 or 24).

2 long days and 2 short days where you can do the school run and still keep the one day a week for catching up.

Then in the school holidays flex the hours around whatever holiday clubs are available, maybe the majority of the hours can be done in 3 longer days, or they do a club for a full week one week and then only 2 days the next. Something along those lines.

Went FT because the pension difference is massive and, for me, I found that PT was problematic career wise.

Two days off will give you time to do all the boring stuff so you don't have to do it when the kids are about.

A couple I know both did four day weeks - he had the Friday off and she had the Monday off. I always envied the fact he got all the housework out of the way on the Friday so the weekend was spent doing nice things.

Primary aged kids and I've gone up to 4 days. I've found it really hard, I wish I'd stayed at 3. I'm thinking about dropping back down but now I'd miss the money!

How about a compromise of going up to 4 days a week? You’d still get a day to do chores etc but bring in more money.
I worked 3 days too and went up to 4 when youngest started reception, then up to full time about 2 years later.
I did love being 4 days but decided I would rather have more money in the end, the amount I earned going up a day was more than enough to cover a cleaner so I thought what’s the point of me having a day off to do housework when I could pay someone else to do it.
I may go back down to 4 days when i’m closer to retirement and DC aren’t as dependent on us.

I just wanted to add that if you are working, the primary carer and covering all the housework and admin on your days off you are absolutely not being selfish. By all means decide to increase your hours or not as you wish but if you do end up doing more paid work, make sure the additional tasks you are currently doing by yourself in those two days get shared with your partner fairly.

It sounds like you being part-time is working for you as a household. There's a lot to be said for not having both parents working full-time, because it just gives that bit of slack for coping with housework, family admin, etc. It makes it easier when children are ill and off school. We could also do with a bit of slack as a society; being part-time makes it easier to help the relative/friend who is having an operation and needs transport or childcare.

Sure, make sure enough is going into pension for both of you, but it doesn't sound like you need more money, and you're getting great family time.

(Disclaimer: I've been part-time for 25 years, and DD is at uni. I'd happily have split the part-timeness with DH if he'd wanted.)

Points I would be considering are:
If you increase to full time, will you partner share the housework with you or will you still end up doing it all at the weekend?
Will the increase in salary work out worthwhile with any additional child care costs?
How will the increase to full time impact on your own work life balance and feelings of well-being?

I personally wouldn’t be too concerned about pension if you are a civil servant as the pension is good anyway and I imagine you’d return to full time once the kids are a bit older anyway.

if you're mostly wfh, can you do a compressed week say full time over 4 days? I do this as a civil servant and it works well for me.

Personally with young kids I think compressed hours in this way are a nightmare. It means you’d have to presumably have them in wraparound mon-Thurs because you’re starting early and finishing late, just to facilitate having a Friday off when you’d only see them after school. You’d be “part time” but feel like you hardly see them during term time. If the OPs family can afford for her to currently be 0.6 then why not just do 4 normal days at 0.8 with one day off rather than stress yourself out trying to fit 5 days work into 4?

Pension it where it hits you…..im nhs old style pension, so didn’t really affect me….I worked just 22hrs ( 2 night shifts) all the years my kids were small ….but then back up to full time the last 13 years so I could retire at 55 on my full pension….but now pensions are different….every year you don’t work full time makes a difference to your pension

When my youngest started school I was doing 3 full days and changed to 4 short days but same amount of hours. During school holidays I go bk to 3 full day for childcare reasons. Also to have more days off with them. No plans to up my hours at all and I feel really happy that I am there for drop off and pick ups every day. No guilt here. Why would u do more hours if u don’t need the money.

Youngest is 6 and I would consider maybe doing 5 school hour days in future. I still feel they are so young and they are only young once. There’s plenty of time when they are a bit older to up your hours.