Returning to full time teaching after maternity

[Mum181095]

Hello all,

I’m currently on maternity leave with my beautiful daughter and already thinking about my return to work (stressing). I always thought I would go back full time because I have the holidays however the more I think the more I feel sad sending her to childcare for 5 days.

Has anyone returned back to teaching full time after they’ve had a baby and found it ok? It’s obviously a drop in money and I don’t want that to be the sole reason I do it.

I did it twice.
Once as a single mum, once married.

It is hard going and you will need a huge amount of self-discipline. You will need to juggle nights without much sleep, childcare, housework, illnesses, all with the stresses of the job and with all the other things you normally take care of. You will also need to find the time to look after yourself, which is hard enough as a teacher at times.

However, it helped me prioritise a lot in my job (because you will have no choice but to say no to extras quite often, initially) and meant that my career stayed on track. And yes, the money definitely helps.

Me! For me it was a no brainer as I'm the higher wage earner. Plus from what I could gather 0.8 meant I'd be largely doing all the normal bits I would normally do such as data entry and assessment marking and 0.6 was an impossibility,

I won't lie, it is tough. We have v v v limited family help for childcare so when there's illness it can feel near impossible BUT we've made it work. I do confess though now my eldest is 5 and my youngest 2 and about to finish my second year juggling it all on 3 PPAs a week (took a step down from second in department to work in a school nearer to home for pick up) i do feel as if I am running on fumes a bit. I quite fancy going part time soon if possible.

Whatever you decide, wishing you the absolute best of luck and solidarity x

Yep, I did it after DD and will likely be going back FT after baby number 2 too. DH went part-time to 0.5, shifts with some weekend work so he generally only does 2 days a week. I don't think I would cope if we were both FT but it's still crap, teacher tired plus parenting tired makes me feel like I'm not doing a great job of being either a teacher or a mum at times. If it made financial sense and if DHs shifts were reasonable hours when FT I'd jump at the chance to be PT.