What hours would you work?

[Coachh]

My DS starts school in Sep and I'm trying to figure out what hours I should work, I have to work 35 hours. Right now I start early Monday - Wednesday and finish at 4:30 to pick up. Do a couple of hours before my DP starts works Thursday and Friday and do the rest of my work in the evening.

I am thinking of doing 7:30 - 3 5 days a week term time so I can pick up a every day. And then reverting to my current hours during the school holidays when I'm not on AL I'm quite lucky that i get 35 days AL plus banks holidays.

Those of you with children in school is this what you would choose to do? Or is having the full days off better. Thanks

I did early start/finish (07:00 - 15:45) which meant I was out the house before anyone else was awake, and picked ds up from after school by 4:30. I had an early finish Friday 12:00 and picked him up directly from school that day. He loved after school as they got a snack and lots of his friends went too.

dh got him up, dropped him at school each morning and worked later and/or weekends.

I quickly got used to the early mornings, but it did mean dh was the one who woke ds in the mornings and if ds was unwell dh was the one who ended up taking more days off work as I was already at work by that point. Luckily it didn’t happen often.

It's so difficult making this decision, i dont envy you. I had 1 day off a week and it was a godsend. It offered flexibility to jig my working week so I could attend school plays, sports days, spend inset days with dc and be off when they were sick etc without taking annual leave. But at the time I had to work in an office which was only open 8-5, op your employment already sounds more flexible than what mine was.

Thank you! Yes I think I'm quite lucky I wfh most of the time, apart from the odd day in London. I would be able to flex any school plays/sports days etc so I'm not worried about missing those, same with sick days. And the school is a one minute walk which makes it easier.

I'm just wondering how much I would miss the days off. Such a hard choice.

I wouldn't keep a day off with children in school. If you need the occasional day off, take it as AL or use a weekend day to do something while your dh has then and then you swap so he gets a day to do something (not every week, but for special occasions). Yes, it's nice to have a day off during the week to yourself, but practically, it makes a lot more sense not to be using after school care and to buy yourself some time in the afternoons.

Yeah I think I'm pretty sure I'm going to do what I said in my OP. But I have colleagues with children the same age who are keeping thier days off... Which made me wonder if I'm doing it wrong!

I work 4 days a week due to my mental health currently having Wednesdays off.
My daughter starts school in September too and my plan is to evaluate mine and her needs at Christmas once we have done a term and adjusted to our new life

My preference is to work 9-6 so on my WFH days she will be at home for breakfast and dropped off for the start of the school day. On office days either my partner will WFH to do the drop off or she will be in breakfast club. She will be in after school club on my working days. We have to pay extra to go to 6 so I might work to 5 twice a week and catch up those hours on my non working day so that we don't have to pay the top up.

I don't think I will go back up to 4 days a week but I might do 4.5 days to allow her to do a club one or two nights a week. We will see. We are just going to see what works best once we are in the thick of it before making too many decisions