DH thinks jobs like this exist - can we tell him the reality?

[grants1000]

DH thinks I can esily get a job that fits the following criteria:-

School hours eg: 9.15 - 3.00 (so I can always pick up the children)
OR
3 days a week 9-5.15 (giving me enough time to drop & pick up children from before & after school club because this job apparently will be local)
AND
That will be flexible for me and me only to work at home the days they are ill becuase he won't be able to ever.
AND
That is still gives me enough time to be responsible for all the housework, shopping and cooking because he won't have the time.

I work from home now because it fits in with school hours and his job, he's away a lot, no fixed times of being in, could have a meeting in London one day, Glasgow the next, may stay over may come home etc etc. His point is that I don't earn much and I should and could earn more, my home business is just a "won't come to much" and I should get a proper job. My "won't come to much" is in it's infancy and just getting going.

So tell me how it is.

Thanks

Yes, agree with Babbity, I started my current job on the current flexible p/t basis, but I wouldn't have got it if I hadn't got a scientific degree and 20 years relevant professional experience, most of which was full time and fairly intensive, I took voluntary redundancy when the DCs were 3 and 5 and was extremely fortunate to find my current job.

Whoknows - are you me?

although I am very untechnical

Mainly admin jobs with the council whoever asked.

Also even though you cant work from home most part time jobs arent bothered about you ringing in when kids are sick,and you can make back hours,have it as leave or just take it unpaid.

I have a role 50% home based and 50% out on the road. However, it took me years and years to earn this flexiblity. Would you take you on if you were running your own business?

And as others have said, ask your DH - would he take you on? If he says there are jobs out tell him you have looked, could he find you one and you will more than happily apply.

If someone is running a business large or small are they really going to take someone on who trys to fit work into her family life with the option to go off at a moments notice, for 'family emergencies'!

Applying for a job like this 'cold' where the enmployers dont know you I think is an impossible task. Start a role and grow into it fine - but to ask for these sorts of terms up front. Well, unless you have some very very desirable skills - I dont think you will get it.

Having said that - the local Sainsbury's - nice area will take people doing school runs etc and offer the hours to match but they are struggling to fill the roles. If you go into an interview saying you want this and this and this, the answer is likely to be 'Next'....

there is a very simple solution to this.
he does the job hunting for this perfect job for you. that will soon open his eyes to the reality.

i would also suggest he book a fortnight off work and run the house as if he were you doing the 9.15-3.00 job and all the house work/shopping/cooking outside of those hours with no help from you and having to call in sick (obviously there would be no job to call in sick to but it gives him the experience of what he's asking you to do) as little jimmy has got a bug.

but he sounds like the sort of arrogant prick who would find such a thing beneath him tbh so wouldn't even entertain teh idea.

I have had jobs like that.
I worked from home going into office when dcs got older. I did it for 11 years. It was 20 hours a week.
My next job was 5 days a week 9 -3 but I have condensed to 8-5 3 days a weeks as dcs are older and don't need me home. I work with 2 others who do school hours and some of it can be dome from home if needed.

i have a very flexible job.
i work 2.5days per week
most days i do the school run, get into work at 9.15, and leave again at 5

however I am able to do this because one day a month they own my ass, and I might end up working from 9.15am to midnight and beyond, so there is goodwill in the bank. flexibility is definitely a two-way street.

i should also add that for a job requiring postgraduate qualifications and carrying a significant degree of personal responsibility it pays a (relative) pittance.

I interviewed for a similar-sounding job in a local primary school a couple of years ago. The hours were 9.15 to 2.45 5 days a week, term-time only. There wouldn't have been any flexibility to work from home if the children were ill or had inset days on different days. It paid about £7,500 p.a. - but this would have been pro-rated for 39 weeks out of 52 - you wouldn't even have been paying income tax on your earnings. Yet, there were over 100 applicants for the job - I got an interview, but didn't get the job.

I have two small children - and as a military wife am on my own for months at a time. The only way I have managed to make work manageable is to do few hours - I am contracted only for 5 hours over two days, and then just take extra ad hoc hours as they need me, but scho holidays I just work to contract. With regard to sickness for children I discussed it after the first bout of chicken pox - immediatly offered to take unpaid time or a annual leave.

It is not the ideal job in that its not as challenging/stimulating/interesting as I like - but I figure children comefiest at this stage, and working keeps me more employable for future opportunities. Good luck negotiating this one - but really do stick to your guns as to what you can manage.

Sorry for the typos - cant do this well from an iPhone!

Sounds like my job. I work for the public sector.

i do wish people would say what job they are doing that meets OP's specs!!

I know someone with a job like that, she is bank staff admin for the NHS. Catch is that she worked FT doing NHS admin for X-many yrs before that, so she knows all the NHS "ways" of doing things. Plus, as bank staff she has no sick pay, no pension, has to file own taxes...

Some supermarkets have shifts like that, but are rare as hen teeth.

I think dinner ladies & kitchen staff at local high school have jobs like OP describes, too.

I am job hunting hard for last 3 months and have yet to see a single job advertised that meets OP's description.

Has he thought about the 14 weeks cover needed for school hols and INSET days...most jobs only give 4 or 5 weeks leave.

What time does the breakfast and after school club open? I have never had my dh take a day off when the children are ill as he loses more pay.I do all pick ups and drop offs to one setting and then go to another setting in the morning.I am doing this over full time hours at the moment.

I dont find it particularly difficult as they are in the club.

I have a job like your second scenario - work 3 days a week 930 to 5 - not locally though, it's 1 hour commute each way. And I can basically please myself about when I come into the office so if I want/need to work from home I can do. Am expected to be on the end of the phone/email 24 hours a day though

But I've been working for this company for 7 years and worked my way up to a very senior level to be able to get that kind of flexibility. The pay reflects that but once the cost of our nanny (we have 1 yr old twins) is taken out of my net pay am pretty much working for NMW.

The club hours are going to be a problem for me. (7:30am-6pm).All the jobs I applied for are in the city which I was thinking would be 50 minutes drive away (rush hour). DH is laughing this evening saying it will be at least an hour. So I cannot get to work reliably any earlier than 8:40am, realistically. I really need to be back no later than 6:30pm to not screw up DC lives and clubs. DH would have to do the afterschool pick up (before 6pm). What a juggle.

I am expecting to work for ~£1/hour after childcare & travel costs.

I have a job like that - I work in a charity. trade off is less pay than if i were doing the same job in the commercial sector (the 9-5.15 job with the flexibility to work from home as needed, not the 9-3 job).

Dh says it's a very convenient job. Convenient for him I say - I end up doing all of the childcare, running around like a blue arsed fly and trying to fit in work around them all. Sometimes I think it would be lovely to be out of the house 8-6 every day and come home to a calm house with no jobs left to do instead I'm the one running back to pick up the children, do the bath/tea/homework thing every day after a full day in the office, and then to pick up emails when they are all in bed.

(I love my job, but because of what it is, not because of its flexibility)

I am a physio working in the private sector x

I worked as a nanny for a nice family that allowed me to take a sick child along if I ever needed to as a newly single mother of 5. Hours were 8 to 5 three days a week. Pay was shite and prospects were zero. The DCs fended for themselves after school or I would have actually had to pay for the privilege of working. I used to come home to a bear pit frequently. With the best will in the world they really couldn't tackle the big jobs like laundry or getting dinner on, or doing the grocery shopping. I was always scrambling for lifts for them on really cold or wet days.

The only women I know who work their own chosen hours are a lawyer and an engineer. The lawyer is self employed and does a lot of conveyancing, small business legal admin. The engineer works for a small local civil eng firm checking and double checking columns and columns of figures that a technician could do. She makes just over min wage -- about what I was paid for nannying in fact.

I work 14 hrs a week (2 days) in a professional job in the public sector. I have an hour each way commute. DCs are in nursery/wrap around care from 7.30 - 6.
Sometimes DH has to do pick up/drop off, sometimes I do, it's a juggling act.
If I hadn't worked for 9 years in the same job pre-DC I wouldn't have my employer's goodwill to be flexible when I need it, and it would have been very unlikely I would have found such a part-time role with a different organisation.

Yes Chesty, everyone could get admin jobs with councils. The councils making a fair percentage of the 1million public sector job cuts by 2017. Do you follow the news much?

I work 18 hrs a week in an admin job in the public sector. The pay isn't good (£8k per year), it's way below my pre-DC position (FT equivalent is about 1/3 what I used to be on). But it's a 5 minute walk round the corner, and reasonably flexible. It is dull as ditchwater though and I count the hours till home time.

Not sure if the job will exist in 6 months time either.

Not just admin jobs with council soloman there are other jobs that do those kind of hours such as care,childcare,cleaning,private sector admin etc

I think the op has lots of options if she is using breakfast and after school clubs as that is normal working hours and lots of jobs are advertised for those hours.

I started out as a TA after staying at home with dd for almost 9 years.
I worked 8.45 til 3, and didn't have to worry about school holiday childcare. Grandparents did the school run, though I could have used wraparound care if this hadn't been possible.
I was offered the job on the basis of experience gained whilst volunteering at dd's school whilst I was a SAHM.

Now dd is at high school my career has progressed and I now work slightly longer hours as a Learning Mentor. This is a much better paid role with more responsibility and I LOVE it. Dd catches the bus to school and is home alone for an hour before I return from work. This arrangement works brilliantly well.

However, the last 3 TAs employed at my school have been university graduates needing experience in a school before embarking on their PGCE, so these roles are much harder to come by now.

I did get my job externally (after my previous employer of 16yrs couldn't make PT work )

It was however advertised as full time and i got them down to 21 hrs over 3 days. No loss of salary per se, just pro-rata the full time.