Working long hours or away in the week

[GrumpySod]

2 of the biggest obstacles to me getting a job are where I live and unwillingness to work FT.

So trying to think outside the box, about how it would be practical if I worked away in the week, had a nanny (obviously, who would soak up all my pay for a few years) or simply worked somewhere 1.5 hours commute away (each way).

Anyone with excess children done that & can talk about how they made it work? Especially wrt not feeling very involved in your children's lives, how to reconcile that. I'm not sure how to even find a reliable nanny/housekeeper (would need to fulfill both roles).

Nannies don't do the house work, could you get an aupair to fill the gap?

No idea! I guess it needs to be a different job title, then, unless I relied on After school club to do only childcare and just forget the state of house. DC would prefer to be looked after at home, though, that would help make it easier for them. How usual is it to offer Au Pair positions that aren't live-in?

I feel we have a massive resource of highly skilled Mums in the UK, who can work school hours or evenings, problem is not many employers have realised this, I wish I had a solution.
We set up our own business as my wife cant work 9-5 and just couldnt find a job, its early days yet but we couldnt think of anything else.
Do you really need to work, due to my shift work job I did a lot of the childminding and school runs and I wouldnt have missed it for the world, before you know it the kids will be asking for the car or a lift to the pub!
From whet friends tell me often its cheaper for one to stay at home than pay a childminder.
You are right to think out of the box, what skills do you have?
Whats local?

We have someone who comes in for a few hours from about 8am until 9 am and then from 3:30pm until 6pm to care for the children, she doesn't do housework but gives the children breakfast, looks after my youngest who is at primary and takes children to clubs. We could not cope without her.

During term time I am not as involved in my children's lives as I would like to be, but I am totally dedicated to the in the holidays .

That sounds like a good ballance.

I've concluded that self employment is genuinely the way forward.
My job is telephone based really, with a couple of meetings per week, lets say 4 hours tops.
There's a moment of magic that takes about 3 hours once a week if I'm luck and that makes my company on average $100,000 every three months.
There's no reason what so ever all of that couldn't be done from home and yet I have never found a company willing to allow that and therefore reduce their over heads.