How many hours do you work?

[Mimiandme]

Hi everyone, looking for some help / advice. I’ve got a 2 year old daughter and currently work 9 hours a day, 3 days a week. I’m finding the balance really really tough, I start work at 7.30am, the morning is a mad rush, trying to get my little one sorted, I look a mess as I run out of time to get myself sorted and I just feel really overwhelmed. My husband works shifts and very long hours so I prefer to not work a Thursday and Friday as those are our days together as he usually works weekends or if he is working on those days I use those days to get things sorted, clean, get things done around childcare. It feels like having a Thursday and Friday is a luxury but really without that time I wouldn’t see my husband and it’s hard enough as it is. He’s in emergency services and is usually late off sometimes another 6 hours off on top of already a late shift, no two days are the same and I never know when he will be home so having those 2 days off works for us.

I’m thinking ahead (I’m a worrier!) about school hours , pre school etc. I’m stressing wondering how I will fit my hours in if I need to do school drop off and pick up? I think it would be easier to spread my hours out over 4 days? How do you make it work? I know a lot of mums do hold down full time jobs and sometimes even more than 1 job. I feel like I should be able to manage this but I find it really hard. I do have anxiety which doesn’t help. I’m just curious what hours do people find a good balance?

Ooh sorry just to add

we made a chart for our children for the morning of the things they needed to do. This helped them be more independent because even when they are capable of doing something they don’t always have the common sense or motivation to actually get on and do it.

I do 20 hours a week, 5 hour shifts. I'm trying to increase but haven't worked in a long time until now so doing this for a while then once CV looks ok I'll move.
I'm a housekeeper in a hotel so I need to be finished by check in, which is when school finishes so it works.

I work full time (37 hours) compressed over four days, have Fridays with my three year old. My partner and I both work at home though, so we just take it in turns to do the nursery run and my work is flexible so a late morning doesn't matter.

I don't have any free time to clean or have time to myself, I have to negotiate it out of family time and it's a constant battle. My partner cooks all our meals but doesn't realise how long housework takes. I find it almost impossible to do housework alongside looking after a child (obvs can do the basics but how do you clean the floors or bathroom?). And like a pp, I need time alone or I go a bit loopy. I'm very much looking forward to when my child goes to school next year and I have Fridays to myself! I'm going to clean everything, sort out the loft, declutter ruthlessly - all the stuff I can never find time to do now.

Whilst ours were pre-school me and DH took turns of being part time (3 or 4 days a week). We used a mix of childminder, private nursery and GPS.

Once they went to school we both went back full time (35 hours over 5 days) and used breakfast and after school club for wraparound care.

I’m retired now, but used to do 40 hours/week as a single parent when I had the kids at home.
Fortunately, being in a rural village meant never having to do school drop offs. The kids walked the 200 yards to the village primary and back again by themselves.
Once they reached high school age, they waited at the bus stop 20 yards from my door for the free school bus, as school was 15 miles away.

I work 20 hours, 2 and a half days and then at uni one full day. 3 kids, 2 are primary age. On my own with them during the week as dh works away. My day off during the week is for sorting house work and doing uni work. I feel I have a good balance.

I have always worked full time ( NHS, 37.5hrs ). My children are a little older now at 13 and 10. From September I'm going to be condensing my full time hours over 4 days, most of my team seem to do this at the moment. Im looking forward to a day to get house chores done etc.. and then weekends will feel more free.

I've just gone back to work. My children are preschool age and my husband works away a lot. My youngest has just started going to preschool for 3 days a week, 0830-1500, so I work 0900-1430 , 3 x per week which is 16 hours with a small coffee break per day x

I work 8 hour days, 3 days a week.

When my DS was in nursery I used a nursery close to work that did wrap around hours 8am - 6pm and that worked Ok. Now DS is at school I use a childminder local to the school who does school drop-offs and pick ups. That works pretty well term-time but she tends to have about 50% of the holidays off, which causes logistical issues. However, I'm lucky that my job is fairly flexible so my manager doesn't mind me working extra hours one week in order to claw back some times on other weeks - so I tend to manage shorter school breaks (half-terms) by working flexibly. My organisation closes Christmas week which helps over the Cmas period. The hardest holidays to manage for us are Easter and Summer breaks. We use a mixture or annual leave, toil, summer holiday clubs and favours from friends. We have to plan summer childcare a couple of months in advance and our weekly planner during the summer hols is so complicated it looks like the evacuation of Dunkirk...