what kind of job fits in with, dropping off and picking children from school, having school holidays off and always being around for sickness etc?

[beachlover]

can you think of any ?
or is self employed the only way to go?
please give me some ideas,

selling porn online?

prostitution?

drug dealer?

people trafficker?

all have flexible hours, are self-employed and pay for treats.

Think I want to find a 'night role' NP when I qualify. I work a few nights now and feel ok after 3/4 hours sleep in the day. Would fit in perfect with family.

oh when DO you qualify emma? is it soon?

i would recommend nights

I wish it was soon. AUGUST 2009! It seems so far away.

The kids dont miss me when I do nights, its perfect.

try {{www.mumandworking.co.uk}} it has loads of genuine work from home ideas/opportunities.

I do Usborne books from home which is 100% flexible and it enables me to look after Kieran full-time. It means going self-employed but that isnt as traumatic as it sounds!

Good luck

Nicki x

omg emma you seem to have been training for ages! the last year goes quickest, honest.

yes i agree nights are best for the family as a whole

I know- im feeling it!

indiechick. Yes, they are too young to be left with a childminder. A childminder would charge what I could earn ,and I didnt have kids so that I could leave them to be brought up by someone else whilst I didnt even earn money from working myself! The youngest one cant even talk yet, how could I justify leaving him somewhere where he cant tell me if he's happy?

I also have a friend who only works 2 days a week, yet her poor child is so messed up by being here there and everywhere... with her, her dh, childminder, private nursery, school nursery, me, and a friend who collects him once a week.I just wouldnt want to bring my kids up with such a lack of security.

Of course dh gets the statutory parental leave, 13 weeks a year if he needed it. But its unpaid, and as we're £100 a month overdrawn on basic salary, even a day makes a big difference. We just cant afford that. He has used annual holiday to help out when I've been too sick to look after the boys properly, but too much gets eaten up that way. He's also had to take days himself here and there. And he took 3 weeks when ds2 was born to help out after my section. Thats was 2 weeks paternity and a weeks holiday. But they only told him afterwards that paternity come out of his annual sick days (20 a year), so he couldnt afford to be sick himself then!

I do need to work, but I'm trying to make it worthwhile financially. I'm not going to work for £5 a day profit if it means shunting the kids somewhere. I'm looking for weekend work, but not many employers like to employ weekend staff for 3 out a of 4 a month. I know I didnt used to. Or the only other time I could work regularly, with dh having the boys, is midnight to 4am, including the travel time. I've done some mystery shopping, but not that many jobs come up in this area. I also do Pinecone and a few other bits here and there.

I need to work because I'd put £5000 aside to live off whilst I was off with the boys. i reckoned on a bit less per yr than the £1000 I've actually spent, so the money has run out about 2 years too soon. So it wasnt that I'd didnt have good plans. It also threw it a bit being made redundant on maternity leave, and then the company going bankrupt whilst owing me 2 months full wages plus the maternity and holiday pay.

And actually, this thread has made me feel very sad and teary now. I actually thought I was doing the best for my children, but its all under question now. As to whether or not I'm being lazy for not working, and using our personal circumstances as an excuse, I want to work, I need to work, I dont want to do it just to fill some time or exercise my brain.But I wont do it unless the job fits round our life and finances.Why wouod anyone work for nothing?

The thing is Mustrunmore - and I really do feel for you - employers pay for your time. If you haven't got much time to give anyone, then it's hard to make a living.

I think somewhere there has to be a compromise. Either on the school run or the holidays or not always being at the school play. There are the jobs like Usborne and seling greeting cards but do they actually make any real money?

Good luck.

mustrunmore

you do know htat every child is entitled to free nursery places dont you. and that you can get help with childcare from the government.

oh and that by law every father is entitled to paternity leave. if your dhs employer told him to take pat leave from sick leave, he is breaking the law

and children dont need to talk for you to know they are happy

Ds1 is in his free nursery place. ds2 is 2 this month, so he's got a year to go. And he only says a few words, no sentences. We put ds1 in a community nursery for 6 months before 'real' nursery because he was fluent at 2, and thought it'd be good for him to have 2 mornings a week. I'd like to put ds2 in too, and have found one that £8 for a 4hr session , but I wont leave him unless he can talk to me about it. It wouldnt be fair, seeing as ds1 had that benefit. Unfortunately, ds1's old nursery cchanged location, and is in totally the wrong direction if ds1 gets into the reception class of our choice (which is looking dubious! )

Re the paternity/sick leave. They didnt have sme dubious get-out clause,which even dh as a GMB rep couldnt get past. IIRC, he got the first week at full pay statutory, the second week at a good will payment of £100 gross or something. So he did get paid from 'normal' working hours, bu the actual days off were taken from his 20 days p.a. sick leave entitlement. And its abig company that owns about 80% of the Uk leisure industry, not a little independent one.

the bottom line is if you really have to work, you'll run out of excuse and the two partners will have to find a way to make it.

Oh, and NKF, thanks.
I'm quite happy for one end of the school day to be forfeited once they're full time,thats inevitable and far from being the end of the world! Probably the early end would be better, else I wont be able to do their homework with them, although dh could do it every other week. Do childminders do homework or just leave it and then you end up doing it very late?

I very much doubt that trawling round local playgroups by bus with a big box of Phoenix trading stuff would earn much money. I've never seen people buy much TBH! And to get a franchise business id too expensive and far too much of a gamble for me! I've seen a friend fall badly foul of that route.

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Expat, I know there are people far far worse of than we are. I'm not denying that. We wont starve if I dont work yet, but I need to get a job to plan a bit ahead, as there's literally no emergency money, and our £100 a month shortfall is only covered if dh get overtime (which tends to come in bursts, depending how the departments budgets look that month) If we had a big emergency of some sort, we couldnt pay for it. And I hate feeling like that. We've done all the cutting back we can really (although we did phone the house insurers today and told them we'd got a better offer so they gave us a £50 discount)

And so bored with the 'you can make anything happen if you need it to' thing.

All it boils down to is that alot of couples can take over from each other to let the other one work, and I wish me and dh could do that. But unless he get a change in rota so he does the same hours all the time, and no weekend work, its not going to happen like that.
I could get a weekend job and find a minder for the one weekend he works too, for the sake of securing a regular job for me.Thats prob the best plan. And we'd still get 2 days a month as a family. do family stuff in the morningd those days, and take an afternoon each to uorselves while ds1 is in nursery.

mustrunmore, try not including dh into the equation for a second - it seems less complicated if you do

lots of single parents work

what i mean is, try not to juggle between you and dh

I think your problem is that you don't earn enough to cover childcare so you are reliant on swapping days with your DH.

i work oppsoite my dh
he works days i work nights

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