Going back after maternity leave - how many days and why?

[nonamesareavailable]

Wondering how many days to work when I go back after maternity leave with DC1. What do you do any why? Do you WFH at all?

Context:
Live and work in London (one hour commute)
Professional job
Childcare will be nursery (or childminder / nanny if nursery doesn't work out)
DC1 will be about 1
We plan to have more babies (probably one more relatively soon - if we're lucky of course - although not immediately)

Opinions / ideas please! Thank you

I do two long days a week. For me I still wanted to spend as much time as possible with DD. So still having 5 days a week off with her I feel very lucky. Also it made more financial sense as two nursery days to pay for rather than three. (If I did three days they would have been 8 hours) I think if I did three days the cost of the extra day would mean I would only earn about £50 more.

None .. I didn't go back !!! It's an option doesn't pay at all well.

Thanks. So not going back isn't an option for us!
My options (realistic but obviously would have to negotiate) are:
3 days
4 days with one from home
5 days with one from home

Well how much do you NEED to earn and what are the costs of childcare where you are?

I personally wouldn't want to be away from my child 5 days a week. So how do you feel about it? Even if one was work from home, you'll need childcare for an into everything 1 year old.

I didn't go back as my job needed to be full time and my company usually turns down applications for part time due to business needs.

I can't see you wanting to pay for a nanny if only working 3 days a week. Nanny will be £££££, then a day nursery will be ££ with the cheapest option a childminder.

Many friends have ended up doing a full time job in part time hours so are equally stressed but not paid for it. It really depends on what your job is.

When I was in pretty much exactly your situation, I did 4 days, and therefore when maternity leave #2 happened relatively quickly I got paid more than if I’d dropped more hours. Went to 3 days with #2.

I’d strongly recommend a childminder or nanny if you plan a small gap.

I'm currently on maternity leave for the 3rd time. I'm also in a professional role. since dc1 who is 6 I've done; 3 days, 4 days, 5 short days to suit school and 2 days. all had their pros and cons. I was probably happiest at work doing the 4 days and happiest at home doing 2!

my advice to you would be start at 3 days. it's very easy to increase your hours but much harder to reduce after you're back.

I only did 2 days pre school. Loved it and looking back I am so glad I was able to do that. It kept my career ticking over for a few years. Now I am a secondary parent I do still work part time but more 'seriously' and having no school runs means I can stay if I need to etc, though I remain fairly disciplined with my hours.

I went back full time when my dd1 was 7 months. It was way too much too soon - I was still bf and honestly made myself ill

I am currently on mat leave and planning to go back 3 days p/w. We have grandparent power childcare but I don't want to use this too much so the plan is 3 days per week - 1 day with each gp, 1 day with either me or DH taking leave. This means that DD only has 2 days with other people.

My context is very similar to yours, except I'm already pregnant with #2!

I've been back doing 4 days with one from home. Does mean long nursery days 3 days a week (8-6), but I try and make it a little shorter in my WFH day as I don't have to commute and can work through lunch. I think it's a good balance

I went back on 4 - no one really gets the part time nature of 4 and you end up doing 5 days work. Now I do 3 - never more than 2 days on the trot at work which is great but you have to be much more organised than your FT colleagues as deadlines come round much more quickly.

I do 3, seems that if you do in my organisation (NHS) you aren't really seen as part time so still get a full time workload. 3 is perfect for me, I'm desperate to spenf time with dd after my 3 days in a row, and pretty desperate to get back to work on the Monday too

3 days a week is the perfect balance.

Check what your company policy is on bank holidays - my husband is part time but gets all in part time and get prorata so it would be best for me to not work Mondays.. that is not my day off

Also bear in mind that you pay nursery if you miss a day normally so if you take long weekends often maybe not have Friday as a nursery day..

I do four days and it’s too close to five.. I do five in four days for 20% less.. suspect three would be perfect!

I went back 3 days a week. I wanted my dc tonhave the balance of their time at home.3 days gave me enough time at home to feel like I could actually do something, but still allowed me to spend most of my time at home with the dc.

I went back when DD was eight months old, I work full time, five days a week but I WFH twice a week. DP works part time and does the bulk of childcare so we don't have to use a nursery.

The two days WFH are a good compromise.

I may go part time in the future but I wouldn't want to not work at all.

I work three days, Tues-Thurs. It’s the perfect balance for us.

My org full time is 35 hours per week. I do 24 hours (so almost 3.5 days) but I do those hours compressed over 3 days.

I have done two, three and four days per week jobs since having dc. 4 is often easier to get through an employer's flexible working request process but in my experience they don't change their expectations for what they want from you but you have less time to do it. This is quite pressurising. The plus side is if you work as part of a team, you only have one day pw to get updates on when you are back in. Working 2 or 3 days pw, I felt shut out of more decisions simply because I wasn't there as much. That impacted how effective I felt in my job.

I felt an OK balance of seeing dc when working 4dc. 1 day was enough to do a fun class, a few errands, spend time together just the two of us etc. The weekends were for dp and the whole family unit then.

The ideal for me in my current job is 3 days as I don't have to work that closely with a specific team and the job was designed to be part time so is achievable (and satisfying) plus I get more time with dc. I pick up the bulk of the admin of family life on my two at home days (but not all of the household tasks like cleaning!) and we try to make weekends time to do fun things as a family.

Think about whether you need to manage a team (hard to do pt) and what will go out of scope from your role if you reduce your hours by 1 or 2 days. That might answer the question for you.

Thanks for the replies. So helpful. I think I am leaning towards 3 days Tues - Thurs. That is my instinct anyway. But I am not sure how working from home fits in with that. I do love working from home as you can put a wash on etc and get your work done and give DCs a shorter day in childcare but doesn't seem reasonable to expect to work from home if only working three days anyway?

I did 3 days for a few years, have gone up to 4 now DD is 4.

3 days is the better work life balance when they are so young, for sure. It really limits your progression though in my opinion, which was fine for me at the time as I was more concerned about spending time at home.

After a few years I want to start progressing again so upped my hours in a job change. I miss my extra day with DD but she's happy at nursery, and I'm happy at work so it works for us.

When I worked 3 days I spent a period working one of the days from home. For me, as nice as it was do fit in some domestic stuff like laundry, I felt very far removed from the team and preferred working 3 full days in the office.

You'll have to see what works for you buto i agree with PP - start with 3 days as it's easier to increase hours than cut them.

So three days per week seems to be the consensus. Any tips on how to negotiate?! What points can I make about how I'm going to make it work when it will undoubtedly impact on the rest of my team. Thank you

nonamesareavailable what a cliffhanger - what happened? What did you argue and did it work? #help

I asked for three days Tues-Thurs and still waiting to find out if approved... fingers crossed!!!

Good luck. Did you find anything online about how to argue that quality/quantity won’t go down? Really struggling w that.