Do you work full or part time?

[qumquat]

I am currently on mat leave and things are bad with dp we are considering splitting. I need to decide next week if I am going back to work full or part time. I'd assumed if I were single I'd have to be full time, but a lot of single mums seem to work part time and I wondered how you make it work financially? I dread working full time and barely seeing dd, then not seeing her when she is with dp as well. I am a teacher and barely coped with full time pre dc, although of course the holidays will be a godsend once dd in school. I also figure full time will safeguard my pension. Just scared I won't cope and dd will suffer. I'd appreciate any of your thoughts and experiences.

Thanks reveal all, I will look into it

just as an example OP, I'm at top. of pay scale and when I was 0.6 I could have claimed £400 a month in tax credits. financially working full time I am about £200 a month better off than that. so that's the difference.

I've worked it out comparing a 4 day week and a 5 day week, it sounds from what you say that maybe a 3 day week could work out better for me than 4? I will look into it.

to be honest having done 4 days a week u may as well do 5 and get the extra money as you will have same number of classes and practically the same marking. I did 3 days for over 5 years. moved up to 4 and hated it so back to 3 for a year. now full time and work load same as 4 days but a hell of a lot more money.

I started with 5 days a week and hated it, I barely saw my DD as she'd be in nursery for 9am, picking up at 6pm then into bed by 6.30. She seemed okay but really tired. After 5 weeks I went down to 3.5 days a week and life is much better. I also run my own business in my 'spare' time to make a bit of extra money and that fits nicely around bedtimes. Now we had the chance to go to the beach today, do some gardening together and enjoy a quality of life that I suspect would not have been possible previously.