To think our situation is lucky regarding work/childcare?

[HelloBambinos]

I go back to work tomorrow from maternity leave (hand hold please 🥺). I spoke to my manager and DH to his about having a fixed rota so we could workout childcare for our 7 month old DD as I really didn't want to reduce hours nor pay out ridiculous childcare costs (who does hey?) Our other children are now in primary school. It's now been confirmed we both have a rolling fixed rota where we can both work 30 hours a week, have at least one day a week off completely together and not have to pay any childcare costs as when one parent is working the other is at home so no worrying about sickness, school holidays etc.

Am I right in thinking that this is a lucky situation to be in or is this normal for working parents? Not that it matters as such it's just I was talking to DH and his friend about it where the friend kept saying DH should work with him and this sort of thing is common practice so it doesn't matter where he works (he doesn't have any children btw so has never needed this sort of flexible working). It's worth noting DH isn't wanting to change jobs as he enjoys his and the pay is decent but it just got me thinking about whether this really is easily done or am I right to be grateful to maintain this on the hours we are working?

I don't know many couples who can avoid childcare cost, as work is usually not as flexible. I'm gonna have that problem soon, as DP work is good but with totally not flexible hours nor days off, so gonna need to work around that.

Most places aren't flexible. If I was you though I'd have our days off on different days so covers two days childcare.

Is your job flexible at all? Even hours wise so you work less days? I think that's the major factor as to why we can do it as I will only be working 2/3 days a week as I can do shifts that are 12/13 hours each. It was a nightmare with our second due to uni we were paying about £750 per month with just husband's income and see student loans. It's hard as sometimes it's almost not worth working due to paying out so much. Childcare funding needs to be adjusted to include all children from 2 years old as this would make a huge difference to people.

Yeh it's always the case that when one person is working it's the other person's day off from work. There isn't any change over or anything so one person will always be at home with the children all day. Also our full days off together are different days each week for some variety so we can do different things with the baby and the children of its a weekend day that week that we're all off.

I think that is unusual and fortunate.

Yeah, it is quite hard, unfortunately my workplace is not flexible (same hours as DPs, and business closed for weekend), so I'm gonna find an evening job I suppose, as as you say, I don't fancy and idea of paying somone most of my wage to take care of my child.
I could work weekends too, but then we wouldn't have any days off together, and that wouldn't work for us neither.
Good idea to compress your hours throughout 2/3 days!

I know one family with a similar set up, he works 9-5 during the week, she's a nurse who works weekends. Everyone else I know, including us, is paying through the nose for childcare.

I work 1 day each week and either one or 2 weekend shifts too. We are very fortunate that family cover the few hours that we overlap our days other than that one of us is home and the other one works.

This happens quite a lot in nursing, certainly the majority of nurses in my department with young children have some form of set rota and work opposite their partner. Lots do a rolling rota where their partner is in the police or fire service. Some obviously still end up needing to pay for some childcare

Ahh I see yeh evening job sounds good and maybe alternative half weekends if possible? It's a tough juggling act for sure and yes definitely helps with the long hours.

For those mentioning about healthcare nursing etc that's exactly why we can do it, I'm a midwife and my husband also works for NHS on a 24 hours service so suppose that's how we've been able to work it at the hours we're doing. I can definitely see why so many couples end up with one full time and one 8/16 hours etc because how the hell can you both work more hours when it ends up that you're just working to pay childcare then it becomes a matter of do I do it anyway to keep my foot in the door or take a step back for a few years..but then the government act like they can't understand why everyone isn't working loads ...Erm perhaps because they make it near impossible most of the time. I'm on a 13 hour day tomorrow when I return so a bit nervous but I think I'll be okay once I get back into it...it's tough this parenting thing isn't it.

See my own thread for how lucky you are! This is great. Well done!