To think that there are no well paid family friendly careers?

[Careerhelppp]

I’m currently a SAHM to young children. Whilst my children are still young, I’d like to start preparing to return to the workplace in a few years time.

I previously worked in PR in London and have now moved over 300 miles away! The majority of PR is in London so it’s not really feasible for me to return to this. The area I was in was also the opposite of family friendly so it just wouldn’t have worked anyway.

DH is a high earner and there is no need for me to return to work. However I’ve started feeling like I’m just letting all of my potential and independence fade away and that I need to have a plan about getting a career back. The difficult part is that DH’s career completely dominates everything. He works away a lot and at short notice so I’d have to work around this. This is non-negotiable - DH couldn’t not do this and if he moved to a different role, we’d be taking a huge pay cut (probably over double what I’d ever realistically earn).

I’ve thought about law (love the academic side but I don’t think the hours would be flexible enough), teaching (not well paid enough to make it worthwhile for us), accounting, being a financial advisor, even being a therapist.

Ideally I’d like a job that is fairly flexible (eg. Allows me to finish earlier and pick back up in the evening), includes some WFH and is has a salary of over £50,000 if full time. Perhaps something where you could become self employed?

Any ideas?! Totally prepared to do another degree if needed and the cost of retraining isn’t an issue.

Law - dont do it. Solicitor here. Moved away from corporate as burnt out by 40. Now work for a smaller firm, just got the kids sorted for bed and I'm logging back on in a minute and getting a cuppa for the long haul this evening.

PR, social media marketing wfh

Teaching is over £50k f/t (just). I went into it after I had my kids. I work 4 days. I don’t need to work financially but I enjoy it. My friend who works in further education at a local college earns a bit more than me. Good holidays too.

Hey Op. Sometimes it’s challenging to hear people who don’t have to work worrying about how hard it is to work flexibly. People who have to work in order to survive and not lose their homes do not get this choice. This is not a dig. The families where parents have to work have children who go to aftercare at least 2-3 days a week. The parents have to agree to do compressed hours to give the child some normal pick up times. The nativity, the Bonnet parade, the summer garden opening, the booknic, sports day are all a trade off. Who is going to take a day off? Who is going to only swap some hours and work from home until midnight? It can be rough. The good news is those who CAN afford not to work can agree a load of unpaid parental leave per year without ruining their career and cover all of this life admin without their actual day to day life combusting. The HR policies of almost all companies allow this but the finances of most families prevent it. Those who could afford not to work generally can afford this and also pay for other assistance like cleaners and gardeners because they are either only going back to work as a hobby OR because their original career trajectory was very good. I and many others sorely wish to be in either position. This is not a dig. Just a statement from someone who sits £10-£20k too high as a household for any benefit and £20-40k too low to have any kind of reprieve from the endless struggle of just surviving. I really do empathise with you OP. But you CAN make it work if you want to. Please don’t be disheartened. xxxxx

Medical school and the junior doctor years are not family friendly though. She could be located anywhere as an F1 and F2- how would that work with the husband’s job. It would get family friendly when the children have left home!

I had to laugh at the idea of law for the untrained who need flexibility. Law conversion course, two year training contract and then a permanent post. Both my daughters are solicitors. Both earn high salaries. After 20 years one has moved to a 4 day week, spread over 5 days. In theory, 9-3. In practice, 9-3. Then 8 til it’s done. The other works 4 days a week, her contract says. There’s a caveat that extra hours may be needed. She earns six figures but works long hours and deserves every penny.

Sorry if this has been suggested - imagine it has - but I previously worked in PR agencies for 20 years and I am now in-house as part of a comms team for a large corporate organisation. I earn £70k and work from home 3 days a week. I have a young child and have flexibility to do school run etc on WFH days and on office days I can at least do one - either drop off or pick up. Have you considered in-house comms roles?

Have you tried Five Hour Club? They are on LinkedIn and advertise jobs from family friendly employers.

Clinical psychology is incredibly competitive. You need an undergrad in psychology or the masters conversion. Then to be able to get onto the clinical doctorate you need experience of working in clinical settings and applying your psychology. Usually these are low paid support worker type roles working shifts. The clinical doctorate is funded better than the educational doctorate. It would take years just to get to being able to apply them massive competition for places to train.

@celticprincess Yes I am aware about the cinical psychology as my goddaughter wanted to go down this route.

So the route to becoming and educational psychologist is brutal. Years ago you had to be a teacher and the training was a masters course. They struggled to recruit so they widened the criteria to anyone with educational experience and the training is a doctorate. You need to have either a 2:1 or above in a BSc in psychology or a masters conversion course in psychology - specific ones which are accredited by the BPS. You also need to have experience of applying your psychology and working in an educational setting to get into the doctorate. Oh and most unis have about 12-20 places and 2-300 applicants each year.

There’s not a shortage of people wanting to train and who are experienced and qualified to train. There’s a shortage of places to train. People do join training at all levels with backgrounds in teaching, TA, social work, support work, loads. The training itself is very intense and placements and courses aren’t really family friendly.

It would be great if they did increase places. I’m an ex teacher with a BSc and MSc in psychology and years of experience in send settings. I’ve applied 3 years in a row now and my application isn’t even getting shortlisted. I’ve had educational psychologists look at my application and seem it suitable and I’ve done some shadowing of EPs as well. However 12 places at my university and 2-300 applicants it’s really hard to get your application noticed. I’ve gone from part time teacher (after having kids) to full time LA support worker in the send department now. Basically paid as an HLTA. Absolutely love it. But not well paid. I might revisit the EP training application at some point after my new work experiences but I’ll be the wrong side of 50 by the time the next application window opens. And the bursary paid for training I don’t think is affordable for me as a single parent.

Not sure about the OT route. I believe it is easier to get into and know TAs I’ve worked with in the past who have gone in to retrain as either OT or SALT but they all have a lot of experience working in send settings.

Teaching is absolutely not family friendly. Sorry.

I’m a self employed childminder. It’s pretty well paid these days with the funding rates where I am, and completely flexible to my own children. I am at every school event, and do school runs for my own kids, I’m there for breakfast and dinner and swimming lessons etc. I love it and can’t think of anything better. It’s not exceptionally well paid, but it’s enough if you work to capacity.

To give actual figures. Working term time only and only 3 days a week at the start of the year, and my own child in my numbers, I earned £24,000 gross income 25-26. It will be a lot more this year as I’m working 5 days and next year will be more again as my own child goes to school. If I worked all year round it would also again be a lot more. And there’s no sacrifices to make in childcare bills etc, because you’re with your own children along the way.

You may need to factor in that AI will soon be changing the nature and number of jobs that you can train for.

Maybe you could look at something in the Alternative Health Sector or Personal Growth Area. With your experience in PR.

Life Coaching, Mentoring, Human Resources etc.

Hope you find something that is interesting and that suits you.

Training in psychotherapy sounds like it could fit you. My mum was able to work right up until 2 years ago at 88yrs old.

it’s flexible hours and you can work around the children whilst young and more later on when they are teenagers. You can set up at home from a lovely garden office or in a bedroom or study if your home is quiet.

the training is long and expensive but you’ll soon realise in the first year or two if it’s for you. There is a lot of course work and reading and it’s essential to get BACUP registered and keep aboard of current ideas even if you are not on board it’s v v important not to judge and to be prepared to read up on tricky situations. You will need Supervision to ensure you are managing correctly.

Just an idea.

Driving instructor. Get on board with one of the franchise-type like Red or Pass (?). You book your own slots, work as and when you want.

(My ndn does it, she seems to be completely flexible - single mum, 3 kids in school)

Please don’t take offence and I love your work ethic. IMO these job opportunities are very rare to find and as many have said usually come from job progression before children. I’m not sure how old your DC is but the world is moving very fast now and staying relevant is very hard for anyone, let alone a SAHM. You sound like you have drive but feel this maybe should have been thought about before children? Realistically many find it hard to get placement In university for courses leaving school, let alone the more mature person. Then the restrictions on you being sole childcare provider. Good luck though.

If you are staring out in a career and want to start late and finish early then it is very unlikely that you will be able to start on a salary of £50,000. That puts you in the top 20% of earners. You probably need to think slightly longer term. A lower salary might not seem worth the sacrifice now, but by the time your children are older, you will probably be earning more and have a more established career. That way if the marriage doesn't pan out for some reason, you in a stronger position.

I love how casually psychiatry has been suggested - just a 6 year full time medical degree followed by subsequent specialism in psychiatry, phd, all that jazz. Easy money right

I work 3 days a week as a legal auditor. FTE is £45,000. It's definitely family friendly. But I've got 17 years experience as a residential property solicitor.

Don't try law OP.

Tech sector, been a lone parent for many years and it’s been perfect. A lot remote work. Don’t have to be tech to work in it, obviously a lot of functions in the vendor side like marketing etc

My friend was going on maternity leave, heavily pregnant with second child and due to mat leave in 2-3 weeks. She had worked all day and was expected to be on call past 11pm. I was round her house and she was sending emails and having calls, 11pm. She had been with the company a long time, this was her second child.

From what I’ve seen of her, law is not family friendly! Pays excellent but not family friendly. She has however gone freelance due to this. However, she’s been in her profession 15+ years and built up experience and clients, she couldn’t have done that fresh off the bat. (And even working freelance is long days, days away meeting clients etc).

I earn £80k in comms. PR / marketing background. Work from home most days and reduced to 4 days a week when I had kids. It’s hard and demanding but manageable. That salary and flexibility has come with slowly working my way up though, I’m senior in my company. I live very rural and still work in an exciting part of comms and PR - the industry has moved on a lot in that way. I also do all pick ups and drop offs of children due to husbands job.

Many agencies and/or companies with in house comms are home based or have one day in a city only per week. Just something to fully explore incase you didn’t want to rule it out completely.

I have two close family members who are lawyers with young children and there is absolutely no flexibility and very little home working, their lives are very difficult.

Self-employed Mortgage Advisor