Cutting down working hours

[babysnowman]

I have 2yo daughter, currently I work full time hours over 4 days.

I'm thinking about cutting out a day so I work 3 long days, so 0.75 FTE.

I know I'm in a very fortunate position to even be considering it from a financial perspective. I'm not judging anyone else's circumstances either - each to their own. I just want more time with her as I hate the days when she leaves for nursery and want to be able to take her to more places on this extra day. She likes nursery, but doesn't love it - she cries going in. I think it benefits her in so many ways though.

It's worth it, isn't it? Although it's a financial hit, I think I will look back and be glad I spent this time with her when she was little.

Any experiences or advice? I'm 90% sure, just looking for some words of wisdom!

I went down to 3 days a week when mine were little and loved it. It was great having time off together in the week when everywhere was quiet. Also with the cost of childcare it didn’t make that much difference financially.

I went to 3 days when I had dc2.
It was an excellent balance for me.
You keep your career going and are also lucky enough to (firstly) spend time with them when they are little, and then, when they start school to be able to recognise their teachers, friends, friends' parents and so forth and build connections with the community around school.

With the personal tax allowance being as high as it is, unless you are on a massive wage the amount of money you lose by dropping those days, is not as much as you might think. Plus of course the saving on childcare.

Yes that's true, dropping that one day at work saves £200 per month in nursery fees!

I'd hate compressed hours- wouldn't it just mean that for three days per week you'd barely see your family at all or have time for anything but work? Would it affect how long your daughter was in nursery on the working days, would you see her at all? I say this as someone who works full time with DC in nursery 5 days per week. Also depends on your role and how it might affect your career progression if that's relevant.
Just dropping a day or two maintaining normal hours would be preferable for me but I also find maintaining full time work helps avoid you becoming the "default parent" and being expected to do absolutely everything at home which I see with so many others who are part time. It also helps fund a cleaner!
If there's minimal commute, nursery close by and/or DH deals with drop offs and pick-ups and properly shares the load at home and you don't mind the long days, go for it!

Yes worth it IMO. Presumably it would be possible to up your hours later on if you wanted. If you can make the money work and your job means you genuinely will have 75% of the work (I.e. not trying to cram full time work into less hours) then I'd say go for it!

@Rayna37 I work from home and DH does drop offs and pick ups. He leaves with her at 7.45 so I start work then. It means we can have breakfast together and I can get her ready. I finish at 5.30 just when he'd be bringing her back from nursery, we have dinner etc and some chill time before she goes to bed at 7.30 (ish!). If I was missing breakfast and dinner because I had to factor in a commute then I might think differently but the way it is now seems like the best of both worlds.

Not sure about definitely being able to up my hours later if I wanted to. I could request it, and there is always more work to be done, but I suppose there are no guarantees

I would absolutely love to do this but unfortunately we are not financially in a position to do so. My LO is 17 months and I returned full time after mat leave in February but like you work from home over 4 days. However, I used annual leave for the first 5 months to take an extra day off a week so it's only been since last month that I've actually gone back up to 4 days and honestly, the 3 days a week was bliss and what I wish I could do long term.
What does work beautifully though is being off on a Wednesday because I'm never more than 2 days away from our day together. I work 7-5 and DH takes DS to child minder for half 8ish (I actually tend to just start work as soon as I wake up at 6:30 so that I can take back half an hour once DS wakes up to give him a morning boob and cuddle as he often doesn't wake up until after 7 so I don't feel I miss the morning too much) and I then pick him up as soon as I finish. The child minder is so close we are usually home well before half 5 and because I work from home I also make dinner during my lunch break and that makes sure we're ready for a lovely evening together and it does all work very nicely I have to admit. However, if I could afford the extra day off, I absolutely would because I do now massively miss my little man on Mondays. But such is Iife.