Balancing work and life - what are the best part hours?

[escapeMadness]

What are the best part time working hours to ensure some decent work-life balance?

Planning ahead for September when my DS will be starting primary school (8.45 - 13.45).

I would like to be able to do pick-ups (not necessarily all) whilst also protecting some time for myself. Currently rely a lot on extended family and that will need to continue to some degree.

But grateful for anyone's advice/experience.

Prob minimum 22 to max 30 hours per week but what is the best way to distribute those types of hours?

**Realise this is all wishful thinking as all would need to be agreed by employer.

I feel my life is quite balanced but im lucky my commute between home/work/kids schools is very short. Our rota runs sun-sat, week 1 i have a weekday and a saturday off, week 2 i have sunday and a weekday off. So works out i work every other weekend and have a day off during the week to myself. I work 10am-3pm weekdays and 6am-11am on my weekend shifts. So keeps me busy while kids are at school, a day during the week to do stuff, all afternoon on weekends i am at work and every other weekend off.

I've worked thirty hours as 8-2 over five days which is great for school pick ups and grabbing a quick shop between work and pick up if needed. Now I work thirty hours over four days 8-4 and have a Wednesday off. I prefer a full day off because I get more 'me' time. However I'm lucky that I can also WFH one day a week, DH WFH two days a week so we only really need wraparound care on one day a week.

Thank for replying @supermamio and @FizzyStream!

I'm toying with 7.30 -1.30 two days and then two 8-hour days as well...that would give me 28 hours in work - three days of being able to pick up DS and one partial day to myself.

At the moment it's mostly from home but not 100% guaranteed to continue.

There isn't a simple, straightforward answer to this as it depends on:

• what your job is (ie, can it include writing up reports or data or answering e-mails in the evening once they are in bed)
• what your commute is
• what your partner does (we've done different things over the years, but when he was dropping them at breakfast club, then I was able to just get myself up and out and I was starting work at 7am, which then makes if more realistic to leave in time to get them at the end of the day
• whether you have to 'be present' (perhaps 'customer facing' from when you log on until when you log off) or whether you can be more flexible in when you are getting work done, as long as it is done
• whether you can guarantee being able to walk away when you want to pick up or if you have to 'finish' that call / meeting / discussion
• whether you want 5 x really short days or if you prefer to get all the work done in 3 v long days or some sort of compromise

Which country are you in ? As you refer to 'Primary school' which suggests UK but then say there is a 1.45 finish which suggests somewhere other than the UK

Thanks @NewName24! I'm in Northern Ireland - stupidly early finish times here for some reason.

I'm in a technical role in public sector and apart from rare occasions have fairly good boundaries with work in respect on it not impinging on non-working time. DP works full time and mostly from home so he can do morning drop-off. I wouldn't be able to work with DS at home unless DP was free and vice versa.

Talking to friend a few days ago - who has teenagers- she mentioned all the friends/acquaintances she made through her DCs school - and right now with DS in pre-school and me working so much I feel like I'm missing out on the casual convos etc at regular pickups and ultimately that may hinder DS socially. Probably overthinking...Maybe I've watched too much Motherland?

i currently work 32 hours a week and am very lucky as school is a 9 minute drive from work so i do 9am till 3pm so can do all drop off and pick ups. Husband works at the same place and has a different weekday off across a 6 week rota and every other weekend off, so on his day weekday off he does drop off and pick up and then i do my extra 2 hours at work on that day. I should say that generally my workplace is super family friendly and flexible so it does make life easier as i can then do all the after school activitese like swimming etc which leaves our weekends free.

I found working 8-4 three days a week the best balance.

I could drop dd at the breakfast club and the cm collected from school on those days.

I had two days to take/collect from school and do all the other stuff that needed doing.

When my DC were in primary school I worked three days a week. That meant I could do drop off and pick up twice a week (they went to breakfast club and after school club on my working days) and I had two days off at home to myself (shortish days due to the school run). That was perfect! Now they're at secondary school they take the bus and I've increased my hours at work.

One thing I would really think about and look into is holiday clubs. A lot near me do 9-3 and the ones that cover 8.30-5.30 are about £45-50 a day. 8-4 would be tough to cover with holiday clubs unless one of you can flex a bit.

I do either 9-5 or 8-4 4 days a week. I like the full day off as DS and I have a lot of medical appointments and it gives me the flex to swap my NWD to go to sports day etc.

I have a great work-life-parenting balance.

I do 3 days a week - 22.5 hours but I have an annualised hours contract. So I can work a bit more and bank hours to bump up my leave for school holidays.

I love having 2 days off a week but now my children are a bit older (key stage 3) I don't mind doing a bit of admin on a day off if I can flex the time later.

@escapeMadness I have a lot of historical HR experience advising on working patterns. Given you can start early 5 days x 6 hours = 30 hours maximises your hours whilst allowing you to do school pick ups.

07:00 to 13:00, 07:15 to 13:15 are what I would suggest for a 13:45 pick up. If 07:30 is the earliest you can start aim for 07:30 to 13:15 = 5.75 = 28.75.

If you want 4 days drop a Monday to maximise BH.

I didn't realise schools finished so early in NI ...... so the people on the news saying that NI teachers are being paid a lot less to do exactly the same job wasn't being entirely truthful then .......
<realises this is nothing to do with your question, but just something I now today that I never knew before >

I worked 3 x full days whilst my dc were at school, and found those 2 days when I was in the playground were plenty to put faces to names and get to know other parents. Indeed, I've had really lovely long chats on 2 different occasions recently with parents of dc my dc were at school with 14 years ago.
I loved the different pace of getting everyone up and out in the morning, on my non working days, including not having my commute, not making my packed lunch, etc as well as the worry of leaving work on time to get to pick up. I'd always choose having whole days at home over contently rushing from one place to another.