Child minder quit :-( has anyone successfully worked opposite 'shift' to partner?

[TwittyMcTwitterson]

Hello,

My childminder handed in her notice today. I am using this as a positive and thinking I could get a job working evenings/nights and my partner keep his normal day job. Has anyone successfully tried this?

Guessing nights are impossible as there wouldn't be time to sleep. But evenings/late nights could be good???

I've paid ridiculous amounts for Childcare and I'm fed up. This could be the start of finally getting a better life and being able to extend our family so am willing to work at it :-)

Thanks in advance

For a while DH worked 8am-5pm and I worked 9pm-6am. That was hard but workable if your days off are the same (they were when I had weekends off) and we could eat dinner together and catch up every night.

Then I went to doing 6pm-3am. This was way better as though we wouldn't get dinner together, I wouldn't be as tired either.

It's a good way of working your life without childcare.

We were really lucky though and one night a week my PIL took DS (Friday - my day off and the end of DH's working week) so we got that time together every week.

When did you sleep?

Can I ask what field of work it was? I worry the only jobs for these sorts of hours are factory type jobs or nursing type jobs. I have no nursing qualifications. I don't particularly care what the job is as long as it works out and there is potential for a career after she's at school/any potential siblings at school.

I do worry about the affect on our relationship also as it would be hard to not see him but generally I do stuff and he does stuff and about an hour before bed we meet in the living room too tired to talk so it prob wouldn't be too different :-/ xx

I have sucessfully worked opposite shifts from my husband it did mean alot of running about and that i was usually cutting it fine in starting my job but it worked. My husband worked 7.30-4.15pm (getting off the bus at 4.50pm where i'd be waiting with the children and we'd do a swap over and i'd start work at 5pm-10pm i never worked on a sunday so we got a family day together.

Before my dc's were at school dh worked during the day and I worked 6pm -12am 3 nights a week. It worked really well.
I would have liked to carry this on but it just didn't make sense when the dc's were at school.

I've worked weekends for years
Supermarkets & other shops are good for needing weekend staff

I work nights in a residential care home 9pm - 7am 3 nights a week, my husband works in an office role 7.30am to 8.30pm usually as he goes to the gym and then has a commute home.

On the nights I work we pass each other at the front door but as we have another 4 nights together we have a good balance.

I have got used to little sleep. I split my nights up so I don't do them consecutively, when my children were small I would nap when they did and the days after a shift were quiet ones so I could chill. Now they are at school it is much easier.

I did have a good career before children but this was the only way I could earn decent money (£1200 per month) to put towards family finances without giving it all away to child carers, I couldn't go back to my previous career as they wanted me full time, long hours, socialising with clients, trips abroad and I didn't feel I could do that with a baby.

So you really get next to no sleep 3 nights a week?

Is that normal money? That seems a very good wage for only 30 hours a week. I work 44, or at least that's my contract and I work 47-8) and get 1300.

My partners not very positive about the idea as he thinks such little sleep would make me miserable.

It's in the private sector and I have done the QCF qualification which has bumped up my monthly pay. When I started it was £916 per month and I was completely new to care work, no experience whatsoever.

We get a 1 hour break and I do doze then but really I don't find it too bad with so little sleep. When I first started I did 3 shifts back to back and it was hideous, I was really miserable and moody so I asked them to give me set shifts, since then it has been easier. I have been doing it 5 years though now so I am used to it.

There are lots of residential homes that only require staff 7pm - 12pm to help put residents to bed etc maybe that would be worth looking into. You don't need any experience, they are usually crying out for reliable long term staff.

Oh and my husband hates me doing it, he is always asking me to give it up but I like earning my own money, it's also really rewarding (residential home for children with learning disabilities).

The problem is that I need a similar amount of earning potential. We split most things 50/50 or take turns paying which means we pay £360 each Childcare. £81.20 cb and £165 tax credits of towards that, tho I'm 99% certain they will stop in April so if I earned the same I'd be approx &250-275 better off. If I earn much less, it's barely worth the hassle. For DP it's hassle. For me it's a chance to better out lives as we can afford to to the house up and get out of this shothole or buy new cars so we aren't paying so much in repair bills. It's also a chance to extend our brood as we certainly couldn't put two kids on Childcare. It's a minefield... Xx

At the moment I generally work nights as a night nanny and do works day time

I do 9-7 and leave 8.30pm ish and get home 7.15/30 depending where job is to home

Dp leaves generally 7am so rarely see him tho sometimes leaves a but later

He gets home maybe 7 ish and sometimes works our I don't see him 24hrs

It's hard but its work and that's it :)

Think carefully as it is more life working opposite each other and weekend working is awful when children are of school age...you would never see them or have days out much.

No life I mean.

Yes we did this for a few years, because childcare and sn are a hard match. It helps that at the time we both worked in different fields of catering so was very flexible, and i requested my shifts 2 days after he was given his... We discussed how it would work and we regularly checked it was going good so that we made time to see each other and one of us wasnt working loads and doing everything around the house, which occaisionally did happen.

That's the problem, I don't want it to affect our relationship as this is the sort of thing that could end it in a way but it also (probably not, at least in my case) could make you value time together more.

Went to see a childminder today and her soon threw a toy at my daughters head and it really got her. That I don't mind. Kids will be kids but she said 'no we don't do that' in such a tone it felt like she was comforting him after a fall. Back to the drawing board...

On another not current CM should give a months notice but has said at end of jan, her mum will take over care of my daughter. Her mum who just had surgery to relieve water from her brain caused by a previous brain cancer! She also already took two days hol from this years allowance over Xmas leaving me in the shit for work. She can't have accrued the days so may start being a bitch