When did you return to full time work after children?

[Harriet433]

At what age did you go back to full time work after having a child?

My child is 3 turning 4 in the summer and will be starting pre school

i am currently working 3 days a week and plan to increase to 4 days when they go to preschool.

I am then thinking it makes the most sense to increase to full time once the child starts P1

does this work for most people to have both parents working full time at that age? We have flexibility to work from home at least once a week just dependent on work schedule

Fourteen months maternity leave and I went back to a four day week after DC1. I took fourteen months materity leave when I had DC2 and returned to work for a few months before deciding to stop working until DC2 went to primary school. Aftet that I returned to work part-time.

I only know one mother who works full time.

Hopefully never, including when they’ve left home
Obviously I’m aware it might not work out that way though.
But I also think it depends on the job and commute - a 9-5 that’s a 10 minute walk away/wfh is very different to the sort of role that requires long hours and long commute.
I had my eldest at 36 and youngest at 39. Friends and acquaintances who are younger mums have tended to go back full time after mat leave, whereas older mums (and Dads - I know a fair few PT Dads with FT female partners) have tended to be older parents. Possibly that’s to do with being higher earners when kids were born? Or possibly generational attitudes changing?

It all depends on childcare really I suppose, if you have options you get back earlier. I went back when youngest was 7, then quit when he was nine as we were stuck so often for anyone to collect and all the after schools that had vans or transport were full. Went back when he was nine when there was a space in a different service. He’s eleven now and life will be so much easier when he’s in secondary (school is very near to my work!)

I went back to work 12 weeks after DC1 was born, back in the 90s. No long mat leave in those days and we needed the money.
Same here. Us boomers had life so easy, didn't we.

Five months after my first. But I gave up work entirely after my second child.

6 months. I have a good career and I couldn't afford to tank it.

I went back ft from when mine was six months. My husband then took some shared parental leave.

Full time when DD was 5.5months and just returned back to full time after DS 9months. After my 1st I quite enjoyed going back but this time I’m really struggling. I would love to drop a day but it’s just not feasible money wise

7 weeks with dd, 12 weeks with ds

This was 20 years ago and I campaigned LF for shared parental leave (via MN and The Times) as we could have afforded DH to have been off for 9 months with both if I could have given him my SMP - but I was the main earner so we were screwed

V glad there are options now

My kids are 5 and 3, I work 3 days over 4 (2 mornings from home and 2 full days in the office, long commute) I have no plans to go full time ever, unless our circumstances significantly changed to require it. My youngest will be 5 days at the school nursery from September and I can’t wait for time to myself in the week to balance everything out.

Probably not until they're in secondary school. Wrap around care is like gold dust around here and we have no family help. It'd also eat up any extra money I earn anyway as I'm on low wages. I currently do about 20 hours a week and am able to leave in time for the school run.

If you have the option then stay part time during primary school. It can be a lot for them starting school, and full time wrap may be too much for them. And working at home with an overtired 6 year old after school just doesn’t work. Then there’s play dates, activities, school events. My eldest is in year 1 and I work 4 days a week, 2 days from home, and this allows me to do some pick ups and drop offs, and the extras she wants.

I took a years maternity leave and returned to work 3 days a week up until DS was 13/14 when I started work in a school so now work full time, term time only.

I felt 3 days a week kept my hand in work but was able to manage child illness by being able to move work days accordingly. My partner worked long hours with occasional over nights so this worked for us.

I’ve remained part time even now kids are much older.
I was 3 days (24 hrs) when kids pre school, now I do the same hours spread over 4 days. Could pick them up from school every day and can take them to after school activities. I have a good salary and we haven’t needed 2 full time wages to pay the bills, although we stayed in 3 bed house and didn’t make the jump to 4 bed as money would have been too tight

DD 3months old and DS 9 months. It was brutal

Still 3 days now children are late teens. Feel like they need me more than ever these days!

One DC junior school. I work 4 days with flexibility around school runs etc

I worked part-time (3 days) until dc were 11 and 8 then went back full-time.

After maternity leave - 24 hours over 4 days
When dd1 started preschool - 28 hours over 4 days
When dd2 went into Y2 - 33 hours over 5 days

DD2 starts secondary school in September and I think I will go back FT after Christmas. Honestly I would say do not underestimate the advantages of:

Doing 2/3 pickups a week
Being able to do some after school clubs rather than everything on the weekend
Having some room to flex hours in the holidays, holiday clubs are often not a full 8-6 day like wraparound
Having some room to flex hours if dc is ill, if you still have a day off when they start school you can swap days etc

Same here too - 14 weeks in my case, as DC1 was born a couple of weeks early which gave me more time at the end of my Mat Leave.

DC2 - we were living overseas when he was born and I was the non-working trailing spouse, but I had a good offer when he was a few months old and we had excellent childcare so I went back when he was about 8 or 9 months. By that time I'd been off work almost 2 years and very happy to go back.

Always full time since I graduated in the late 80's.

Forgot to add that the dc are now Y9 and Y12.

I went straight back to full time after maternity leave when DD was 12 months. Although I appreciate that I was lucky enough to be able to condense my full time hours into a 4 day working week, so it does make things easier for child care.

9 months old, when maternity leave ended. I always thought that was fairly standard.

Went back f/t after 12 months on my first. My second is 8 and I'm still p/t (was 4 days then dropped to 3 days) That's due to childcare but also perimenopause factors now. My house is still a mess, though 😆

8 months with DC1, 10 months after DC2. But we have a FT nanny (and still do even though both DC are at school).