Does 4 days a week work with young children

[mercator]

Hi. I worked 3 days a week and made redundant whilst pregnant, kept on the books and been offered a 4 day a week role. The thought of leaving my children is making me feel sick for 4 days whilst I felt 3 days was achievable. Anyone else doing it and it works?? Dreading the thought.

This is what I do and it works! I think if you are comfortable leaving your children for 3 days then 4 will be absolutely fine. It's not really that much more and you will still get a weekday to spend with them. They'll very quickly adapt to their new normal.

Are you able to choose which days you work? I have a Wednesday off which really helps manage tiredness (both mine and my son's!). You never have that relentless work work work feeling as you do 2 days then a day off.

Difficult to answer definitively!

Depends on a number of factors:-
hours OH works and if there is any flexibility
reliability of regular (and also emergency) childcare
ages of the children (?school holidays yet)
other responsibilities you may have, such as elderly parents

If you are SAHM at the moment then you (?and DH) need a good hard look at the finances as childcare can be really costly.
I found that a nanny was brilliant and financially better than daycare when my three were very small because if they were slightly ill, they could have a snuggly PJ day while I still managed to get into work.

FWIW I have worked a variety of different jobs/none while our three are small, and you're right - 3 days somehow felt more manageable than 4 for me too. Housework and paperwork etc started to slide and I would get a slightly panicky out-of-control feeling when I worked 4+ days.

I'm sure you could make it work if you wanted though!

Thanks, not really sure I really want to go back! My eldest has just started school and youngest is 13 months. We would have to have a nanny as my oh travels and is away for 40% of the year which put more stress on me. The role is working from home big plus point and I get up o 8 weeks leave a year, which is why I am thinking of trialling it. Just not really feeling up for it.

If you are working from home and it's 8 weeks holiday it should be ok but I found 4 days to be the tipping point after working for 3 days and have several friends who have found the same. I was literally on my knees and we had no family life at all. My children are in school, youngest just started and my DH has a hugely demanding job with no flexibility. I also found that my older children needed me far more than the younger one. She needed me around for homework and just generally to be there and was very bothered that I had to keep saying no to things, to helping on outings, to going to matches and all the other things the mums did as I had to save my holiday for the school holidays. Of 3 days I found I had more space to shift things around and work more flexibly.

God definitely take it!
You've been offered a role , do you know how tough it is to get a job these days?
& it's working from home & 8 weeks off!
Will you be able to get such a job in 3 years time when both kids are at school?
Think in the long term imo

You don't sound keen but 4 days a week is feasible with dc, the leave sounds great too.

I'm 4 days and have been since DS was 7mo it is a great balance I find. The fact that you are being offered to work from home and the flexibility that brings sounds like a great opportunity. Id say Go for it!!