DD is 10 mo, i'm back at work full time, when do I see her?

[Maia290]

I just need some support and advice.
I am back at work on a full time basis, my company wouldn't do part-time apparently. DS is at nursery full time, when we pick her up at 6pm she is exhausted and goes to bed at about 7pm, so we don't really spend time with her during the week. I would like her to go to sleep later about 8pm so we would have some time with her.
Can anybody give me some advice?

Mornings, evenings, weekends. I had the same with ds. Fine at that age but the real difficulty comes when they start school.

Yeah, me too - I guess you have to try and maximise the time you have with her. I am lucky enough to work quite close to where I live (a rare thing in London) so I don't take a lunch break and leg it home after work to pick DD up at 5.30, and just have fun with her before bed - but she goes down at about 8pm. Is she not sleeping at nursery? Could you have a chat with thm about that?

Also what I wanted to ask, is do you eventually get used to not seeing them as much. Do you think they are still happy? He doesn't seem sad or bothered at all, but very difficult to know to be honest at 10 month old.

Mollie, why is more difficult when they start school?

I am a Childminder and some full time parents ask me to let their DC sleep more in the day, so they see more of them. For example, one naps 4pm-6pm, so he can sit with the family over dinner and play with them before he goes to bed at 9pm. He gets up and plays with them before or after breakfast and then comes to me for a morning nap.

School = homework, after school clubs/activities, playdates etc. I was warned when I was having a whinge about how hard it was to be the working mum of a 10 month old. All my friends had older dcs and just laughed at me and said just wait until he starts school. They were so right. It is so much harder to sort out everything.

Ds definitely misses out because I work full time (no choice). There is a whole other world that goes on during the week that he has no part of and it's hard to compensate at the weekends.

It's definitely harder to organise care when they start school although my two will fight to stay up later but not wise in week as then impossible to deal with in the morning. I a lucky in that I have a friend who takes DS to gymnastics on day and I have a nanny 3 days a week who can take him to things. Otherwise he would miss out on everything.

My main tip would be get a cleaner if you can so you aren't spending the weekend on housework and can do stuff with your DS. I think my 2 are happy but DD in particular mentions how much she misses me

I am having trouble with this too. I have extended 20 mo DD's bedtime from 6.30 to 7 but she has trouble staying up longer than that and her days suffer if she holds out till 7.30 because she doesn't sleep bank by sleeping longer in the mornings or having a longer nap. Will be watching the responses with interest OP because I need the same advice!!