Has anyone taken a career break after maternity leave ?

[hahavzv]

My maternity leave is coming to an end in the next 2 weeks and my 14 month old has started her settling in sessions at nursery last week.

I really do not feel comfortable with sending my daughter to nursery just yet. I just cannot bear to think she will be without me for so long. She will be doing 6 hour sessions 4 days a week.

I have requested to cut down my hours further from August (I’m an FE teacher) and this would mean she would be in nursery for 2 of the days instead of the current 4.

back in December my DD fell ill with what could have been Covid and after that, she has never been the same. She stopped eating food, and so I continued to breastfeed on demand for those few months. Now she is a bit more like herself but her eating isn’t great and also she lost a lot of weight with which I’m really struggling to help her gain weight. With all this anxiety, and now nursery and work, I feel more anxious than ever. Mum guilt has kicked in in full force. I really am considering taking a year career break. She is also developmentally a bit behind for her age and I just think the best thing for her is to spend more time with me and vice versa.

financially, I think I’ll be ok. And it’s only for a year. So I just need to hear some advice and if anyone has experienced this?

also to note, I have two other children.

It sounds like a good idea to me. Do you think you'll be ok getting a new job at the end of the year?

My cousin did this but to be fair she had twins born in Febuary and didn't go back in the same August ( so they would have been 6 months) instead took another year. It sounds like you are quite pt anyway and have 2 other children, I guess my biggest question woukd be how is your pension looking ? Assuming you have a partner could they take some time out or cut back hours to allow you to preserve your career or if nothing else pay a bit into your pension.

I did. I just decided I couldn’t face it. I needed to be with my daughter and felt she needed me. She was my third and I hadn’t felt that way before, but it was powerful! In the end I was off until she was 4! Best 4 years. I went onto have 2 more and didn’t feel the same. Just that one child. I am equally close to all of them, it was just a feeling with her. She was diagnosed with autism later on and I wonder now if it was a subconscious drive on my part as a reaction to need in her (or something). Anyway, it sounds like it would be a good thing. And if it doesn’t affect your career then why not (it took me a while to get back to a reasonable level in my corporate role - law)

I’ve already discussed with my manager the timings I would go back to and what I wanted in August. How do I go about speaking to her about this? I feel bad about this here too!