Family friendly career

[Confusedmummytobe]

Hello everyone, this is my first post. My DH and I are planning on starting a family. I have previously worked in the civil service. I decided to leave that as I love children and wanted to work with them. I have since trained as an early years teacher and primary school teacher. I love the job but I'm worried about whether I will be able to continue to teach when I have children and a family and whether it is family friendly. I don't intend on working full time but would like some part-time income/enhancement to life. I'm worried that part time teaching will still make it difficult to focus on my family so considering going back into civil service not because I enjoy the job, but for the flexible hours etc. Is it worth doing a job your not very happy with for the flexibility and income? Anyone find part time teaching works with children? Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated from teachers/civil servants/anyone with a career and family. I'd love to have some work for income and also to enhance life but my main focus will be my children, I want to be there for them as much as I can be.

Well, if you are working as a teacher already, then you will know about the pros and cons.
Schools (and SLTs) vary in their demands and support. Schools vary in the demands put upon them by parents. Individual teachers vary in their ability to be able to draw a line and say 'I'm not doing any more tonight', or their confidence and ability to be able to plan lessons more quickly or more slowly than their colleagues might.

I know a lot of teachers get cross when this is mentioned, but the benefit of being at home for the majority of the school holidays (as long as you work in the same LA as the schools your dc go to) is immense. Obviously, against that, the lack of flexibility and being able to book a day's leave or start a bit later or finish a bit earlier occasionally for a special event and make the time up elsewhere, is frustrating. The workload is heavy. The stress can be intense.

Working Part time seems the perfect balance to me, if your family budget can take it. When I had dc2, I went down to 0.6 of a week, and that has suited me as a parent and a teacher. Hours down to about 33 - 36 per week. Ability to say "No, I'm not able to do that with the hours I'm paid for" now and then.

But it's a very individual choice.