How do people work full time with kids

[Uklady23]

I have been really lucky since having my children I haven't had to go back to work. My eldest is turning 5 shortly my youngest is 3.

I have been toying with going back to work for a while, it would be nice to earn my own money and to be honest a break from just being a mum. (This probably sounds awful but the thought of actually speaking with adults and having an actual dinner break is really appealing)

In the last few days I have started searching for jobs and in my particular field the only ones coming up are full time Mon-Fri, this scares me. I was hoping for part time. I don't no how people do it does anybody have any positive experiences or advice on this. As it stands now I do all school run/pickups. My husband job is pretty flexible.

Thanks for reading.

I don't have children at home, work full time and struggle. It ok.until something goes wrong . 2 weeks without hot water. Got to wait for my sister to sit in for me

if husband's job is flexible then he can do the school runs.

Hybrid working with a flexible employer helps massively. On my WFH days, I log on at 7ish and get an hour of work done whilst the children are eating breakfast and getting dressed. We leave home at 8:30 to go to school, I’m back by 9 then work straight through until 3 when I finish to do pick up. Luckily my boss is fine with this, she does the same as she also has young kids.
On my days in the office, I drop them at breakfast club and then my mum picks them up and looks after them until either DH or I get home.

Most people pay for wraparound care, and then stagger their start/finish times so they and their DH can split the pick ups and drop offs.

I start at 8am so DH does all the drop offs. He starts at 9:30. I work compressed hours with two long days, so I can do three pick ups. DS is in ASC on my long days, so DH picks up at 6pm.

Pick a school with decent wraparound care!

Hybrid working, a boss who genuinely understands the demands of parenting and good childcare. As others have said.

Both DH and I work full time, but he's mostly home based. I couldn't do my current job if the expectation was for me to be in the office full time. As it is, it's very flexible and I always get everything done. We can take the kids into school and sometimes pick up, they're in an excellent after school club that they love. We are very lucky.

That said, the pace of life is hectic, you have to be mega organised and it's sometimes very hard going. I'd like to go back to being part time again...but am enjoying my job and also the money.

We struggle. Both DH and I work full time in the NHS. 3days per week we need morning and after school wraparound care. DH’s job is more flexible as he is in management, so does most of drop offs. We share pickups as best we can but some days we are both racing to get the kids with minutes to spare. Holidays are a combination of school clubs and alternate days off and working from home with the kids on screens. We don’t have any local support since my parents died so it is always very stressful.

Whopping childcare bills, a partner who pulls their weight and flexible working patterns ideally. Alongside seriously ramping up multi-tasking and efficiency. It's fine, you get into the swing of it and make it work for you. There must be some part time work available though, if that's what you'd prefer? Even if it's not what you'd ideally want to do?

Thanks everyone.

I know so many people do it but it does blow my mind currently feel like there's not enough hours in the day to fit everything in without having to go to work. Main concern was school holidays but I do know there are holiday clubs etc.

You are all super hero's in my eyes, hopefully our family adjusts to a new routine quickly.

Although it is mentioned in a few responses on here I think the big difference is having some grandparent support.

I know many parents who never have to worry about school pick ups or holidays as they have almost unlimited grandparent support.

I have literally no support other than my DH who also works FT. It means we end up with huge childcare costs plus have far less holiday time together as we have to split a lot of ours to accommodate school holidays.

We worked out that this additional childcare will end up costing more than we paid for our house.

After school club, holiday clubs, flexible working arrangement. I am full time but one day a week I pick up kids from school- husband does same on another day, other 3 days they are in wrap around care

We only do online shopping, we have a cleaner, we make the most of weekends and make sure to have a good few holidays in year so we have some calm amidst the craziness of term time.

Works well for us. Although, I would be lying if I said I wasn't tired, all the time!!

We had grandparent help 2 days a week and nursery. DH was around on his days off from his shifts to do the rest. It is really tough. When I worked FT out at the office, I missed so many things likes school assemblies and was always fighting the traffic to get to nursery before it closed. I did manage to negotiate PT which helped ease the stress. I now WFH FT for a family friendly company which means I can attend assemblies and do the school run in between work.

We both work full time and always have done. Daughter is 8. We use a childminder after school 3 days, grandparents 2 days. We do drop offs then go to work after.