Asking too much - work related...

[TheGirlWhoLovedTomGordon]

I am a single mother of a 13, 9 and 5 year old. Have a job working 23 hours. This involves two weekends a month. I’m struggling to cover the childcare, as their father is often unreliable. The children occasionally say they don’t want to go to his house, and I feel so wrong forcing them. He’s not great in a lot of ways.
I can’t scrap my weekends as they are part and parcel of my role.
Am I expecting too much to be able to work these hours around such young children, with this situation? How do others manage?
I think I need to put their well being first over my wages.
Any thoughts?

It is really difficult . I don’t consider I can take a job at all that involved working unsociable hours. My Ds doesn’t see his dad.
Could they go for the day?
How many hours do you do on the weekend .

I have a close friend in a very similar situation and it only works as she has a small group of friends who are on standby at the weekends to take her dc if their arsewipe father lets her down. TBH it is a pain at times but she needs to work to earn money as we all do and as a lone parent myself we help to make it work for her.

Thanks for replying.

I do 8 hours Sat and the same on Sunday.

I could take a different role, with no weekends and less money. But it would be a kind of agency basis, so no annual leave or sick pay.

But for the kids happiness it’s worth it isnt it?

Is there an option to ask for flexible hours.

It is finding the balance in there.

It is a balancing act wages provide part of their well being by keeping a roof over their heads and I see nothing wrong with children understanding that.
I work full time with a lot of antisocial hours and I had an au pair to facilitate that. DD didn't love all the APs, but she understood that we needed my job to keep us afloat.
She is older now and no child care is needed.