5 mornings or 3 whole days..

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lucky me, i have a choice of whether i do 5 mornings 8 - 1 or 3 days. The hours are the same. Can't really decide which is better - DD is 18 mths... my travel time is 45 mins each way.

sorry its a boring one!

Personally, I think 3 whole days as you'll save money on travel and only need 3 days worth of working wardrobe.

I would imagine 5 half days would feel like full time as you'll be going into work every day.

3 days means less overall travelling time/cost.

3 days means 2 full days to spend with DD - you can go on trips which you couldn't with half days.

Plus if she's ill, she has more time to recover and you have less time off work than if you're in every day.

Another one for the 3 days. Apart from getting better time to spend with your DD I find that if I do whole days at work then I feel more 'there' IYSWIM?

Also, if you work 5 half days, you will be spending 5 afternoons with a tired DD.

3 days and then you could switch to 5 mornings when she's at school?

3 days at work 4 days at home - I did that for months and it was great. I chose Tues, Wed and Thurs, so long weekend each week and dc got into a good routine. Went up to 4 days last month for financial reasons which is still okish.

It depends on the kind of job.

Is it the kind of job where there is likely to be something that you have to deal with every day, so if you're not in the office every day you will get disturbed at home?

If so I'd consider 5 half days.

If it's the sort of job where when you are home you are not called on, then definitely 3 days.

(Another reason for 3 days, to add to the ones above, is that if you're there every day it's easy for people to think you are full time and give you a F/T level of work )

what ouchthatssore said.

do you have a partner? which of 'your' days are they going to do the pickup so that you can have a long day at work (if you want that??) or at least a day where it's not a disaster if you finish ten minutes after time?

I currently work 3 full weekdays plus Saturday. Used to do 5 short days but much prefer this.
It means I can make appointments for dentists or deliveries on my home days and have a decent chunk of time off.

IMO the shorter hours across the extra days will be lost in the commute tbh.

I would definitely go for 3 long days and as another poster has said possibly reconsider when you LO starts school to fit in with drop-off / pick-up.
LCN
PS I do Mon, Wed & Thursday so I get a 3 day weekend but don't miss out on the bank-holidays

I currently work 5 mornings and really enjoy it. My daughter is only in nursery for a few hours each day and we get to do something together each afternoon. It also enables me to keep fully on top of my work rather than playing catch up, which I feel I might have to do if I was out of the office 2 days each week. Also works out well for holiday entitlement as I still get the same number of days as a full time employee (except mine are half-days if you see what I mean...)

I'd go for the 3 days. It's less like being on a rollercoaster. You can have lazy mornings, visit friends for a day, have days out in the summer. It gives you time away to forget work.

Since DD started school I have moved back to 4 short days and one full day. I previously worked 3 full days. I really miss the 3 full days as you could really do things on those two days - meet up with friends; do swimming classes, etc. Having 2 lazier mornings when just she and I could pootle around with no mad rush to get to work/nursery was lovely.

I would also advise working Monday, Thurs and Fri if you can, then when you have a bank holiday weekend, you have a lovely 5 day holiday instead!