Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Work

Chat with other users about all things related to working life on our Work forum.

Original poster

Will these hours kill me?

34 replies

TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:10

Ok, we are DESPERATE for extra dosh.

I wouldn't get a lot for and ft/pt job after childcare costs (Have 2 dss, one who's 2 and the other 4 months)

I am currently teaching the cello 4 nights a week (one hour at a time) I have spent money on advertisisng this to get more pupils etc, but unfortunately, I can't magic pupils out of thin air.

So I have taken a job in a pub for one week night + sat afternoon.

However, this still nowhere NEAR covers what we need, so I'm going to have to do nights somewhere along the line, I think.

So that's 5 evenings a week, plus sat afternoon, plus the very real possibility of doing 3 or 4 nightshifts a week shelf stacking or cleaning or something (whoopdeefuckingdo! That's what I did a degree for...)

It's going to kill me isn't it?

What alternative do I have?

I have tried to do Usbourne/Mini IQ type stuff, and I was crapola, so that avenue is closed to me.

OP posts:
DizzyBinterWonderland · 29/12/2006 18:15

i go back in 5 weeks doing 4 evenings, 2 of them 3pm til 11pm, 2 of them 5pm til 12am. i thoroughly expect this to kill me too, but it's keeping my foot in the door at work, keeping the money coming in and keeping dd at nursery the bare minimum (2 afternoons when i start at 3pm).

what you're planning does sound like a heck of a lot but hey ho it's what we have to do isn't it?!

is there anything more profitable you could do with your music?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:18

Not really dizzybint

It's been a long while since I did any real playing, and I am well out of the loop with these things now. IME it's all about who you know.

Pluse I am shite at the cello now, as I have no time to practise!

I just can't face the thought of looking after 2 small boys all day, working in the evening and then working all night, but I don't really have a lot of choice.

I have investigated wtcs, but we'd get fuck all

OP posts:
emmatomATO · 29/12/2006 18:19

I doubt there's anyone who would 'choose' to do what you're thinking of doing but if, at the moment, it's your only option, then give it a go.

You may be surprised that you find the extra energy to cope and you never know, from all the contacts you meet, you might find something better down the line.

On the other hand it might be completely overwhelming and you won't cope, and you can quit some of the hours. I don't think giving it a go will do any harm if you are as desperate as you say. Good luck.

Skribble · 29/12/2006 18:20

what about Something like jo jingles , do your own version and avoid having to pay for a franchise.

I would only consider night shifts if both kids are at school and you can get to sleep through the day. I have a freind who does care work and does the night shifts because she gets the same doing 2 nights as she would doing 4 days and she sleeps when her DD is at school.

DizzyBinterWonderland · 29/12/2006 18:22

yes we get the basic minimum wtcs, makes no difference if i work or not. it's all because our mortgage is far too big to be honest. but it comes down to do we want to live in a nice area or a crap area really? so yes, i'll be with dd all day, then off to work after tea time until midnight basically. then up at 6 ish with dd again.

not much help i know, but hey, you're not alone. we did look at other otions but as much as childcare costs a small fortune by anyone's standards i also didn't want dd going to childcare for too long each week.

LucyJones · 29/12/2006 18:22

Just a thought but are you absolutely sure you couldn't cover childcare costs in the day? When you factor in child tax credit etc you get a lot more help than you might think. It might be worth ringing the Inland Revenue to check?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:23

I used to work for Jo Jingles, and I would go back to doing that if I could take the boys with me, which I can't. Otherwise, this area is saturated with toddler music groupls, so it's a bit of a no go.

urgh.

OP posts:
DizzyBinterWonderland · 29/12/2006 18:24

oh i should add, i do nap with dd now, certainly her hour in the morning, so i expect that will continue!

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:27

Thing is, my earning potiential is low, as I have got no proper work experience (apart from shitty menial jobs I did as a stuuude, and a crap year in a publishing house I did about 400 years ago) so I just couldn't justify putting the boys in childcare for the amout I'd probably bring home.

Anyone fancy doing a bank job with me? I've got some spare balaclavas!

OP posts:
Skribble · 29/12/2006 18:28

Any other toddler classes you could run, if you do you own then you can bring your own kids. If loads of music is there a lack of any other classes you could do?

DizzyBinterWonderland · 29/12/2006 18:30

what's your degree in?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:32

I suppose it's woth a thought skribble...

I'd probably have to go quite far afield, as Bath (where I live) has a toddler group for every occasion (Music, art, Spanish, Igloo building, Bank Robbing For Th Under 3s)

What sort of start up costs are involved do you think? We are on the bare bones of oyur arses

OP posts:
Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:32

Music and Education (BA Hons, doncha know?)

OP posts:
Overtiredmum · 29/12/2006 18:33

Tinsel I work evenings (am working now!) I do Monday to Friday 5pm to 11pm working as a legal secretary. My DS is 18 months and and I came back to work when he was 5 months old. Has been hard at times, especially when he was waking many times a night, but is certainly getting easier the older he is getting. I am still up and about between 5 and 6am most mornings, although we try and get a nap mid-morning. I also have to work one Sat or Sun a month but at the end of the day I just have to think of the money. I would have loved to have stayed at home longer but, like you, we have quite a high mortgage and alot of debt which we accrued with buying the house, so its all pretty necessary really.

Skribble · 29/12/2006 18:34

Oh I am up for a bank job, a copper once told me you could do anything when a big event is on and you will get away with because the cops are all busy .

No really I am struggling to find a job that brings in decent money, trained as a nursery nurse years ago. But difficult to find a job that starts after 9am and finsishes by 2:45pm. My 2 are a school and it isn't any easier, only 2 childminders in the village and neither want 2 afterschoolies, and no after school club.

MIL takes them when she can but lives 6 miles away and can't always get the car. I am doing delivery stuff in the mornings just now for £5.75ph plus petrol but it is killing my car and doesn't bring in much dosh, applying for a classroom assistant job that should be a bit better and a 10-1pm job in homebase, less money but won't involve killing my car.

Judy1234 · 29/12/2006 18:36

I think you need to get to know more local schools and parents somehow. I don't see why music teachers in this bit of NW have waiting lists and yet in somewhere like Bath you can't get more teacing the cello work. Do yo uplay the piano too enough to teach it at beginner level? My ex husband did piano, organ, singing, theory lessons plus some maths tuition as well as organ engagements plus his full time school job. He had about 30 pupils on top of school. So why was there that demand here and not in Bath? Or did he just know the people that were placing that work?

Have you tried ringing up every director of music in all local schools?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:40

There is the demand though, it's just there's loads of music teachers to meet it!

Our local schools music tutition is all covered by the council's music service, where currently they don't have any vacancies.

Also, again, there comes the childcare problem.....

OP posts:
Skribble · 29/12/2006 18:42

Would teaching music in schools pay enough to cover a childminder or a p/t nanny?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:45

Yes, but it would be very pt, aso again it wouldn't be worth it from an income pov.

OP posts:
Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:48

The bank job's looking favourite.

OP posts:
littlerach · 29/12/2006 18:48

My firne ran a music and movement group in Wellow and di okay, but she's gone back to teaching now.
Another firne in Bath is a peripatetic (spelling???) teacher of music near you. But they both use family to cover childcare.

Have you thought about care work?
Would have thought you could get a couple of nights a week, or a weekend, and earn as much doing that as you would in a supermarket or pub.
Or childminder?

Why were you crap at usborne etc?

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:50

Me and sales don't mix for starters.

I think it was more becuse I didn;t know enough people to start it up, and although I am a bolshy and loud individual, I have absolutely zilch confidence when it comes to work

OP posts:
Skribble · 29/12/2006 18:51

New Years eve for the job then .

Original poster
TinselgalacticWalrusOfLURVE · 29/12/2006 18:53

It's a date.

Do you want the red or the green balaclava?

They are both knitted form itchy wool to give the authentic going to school-in-the-days-pre-1985-with-earache fee;ling

OP posts:
DizzyBinterWonderland · 29/12/2006 18:54

i could be quite helpful with this..i used to be a bank manager..