How to work as a parent

[MammaBe]

I'm really struggling working out how to incorporate any sort of employment with nursery hours. How do others manage? I'm currently doing only 2 hrs a day with some wkend hours. DD is 3 & working up to a 'full days' but that will still only give me capacity to work say 10 to 2pm.
What do others do? Use a childminder to allow longer days? I opted for a school nursery which DD loves & wanted to avoid daycare (didnt find one I liked) but I'm starting to think that's the only way.... I'm going round in circles trying to figure out how to make it work. My family seem to think that I'm underperformed & should be running my own business!

What is going on outside of 10-2? If that's cleaning, cooking and doing other stuff then that's work. It's household work. And you need to discuss with DP how it gets done. If you don't have a DP then you need to work out how you can make things more efficient (batch cool and freeze etc).
But the reality is it that its hard !

Do you have a partner? You obviously will have to pay for nursery OP or a childminder. Even if you manage to find a 10-2 Jon it's like gold dust! Plus is that what you would be happy to do?

Childminder, breakfast/after school clubs, nanny.

Probably childminder is the answer in your scenario.

What job do you do where you can do only 2 hours a day?

Or a night job?

I'm a single parent who works full time 40hrs a week.

Private daycare for 3 days a week & luckily grandparents for 2 days.

Drop off at 7.30 & collect at 5.30

It's when my DS starts school that I'm really going to struggle with the "school run" hours.

My DS was in nursery from 8-6 from when he was just over a year. That's the reality for many working parents. We know use a mix of a nanny, after school clubs and marginally flexible work schedules now that DS is in school to ensure we still get 8-6 (ish) for our working days

We use a nursery and Dc goes from 8-6 3 days a week.

Private nursery then wrap around care once they start school.
A partner who does at least 50% of drop offs and pick up and household chores.

If you want to work full time, then you just get full time childcare? Such as nursery or a childminder.

It's a nightmare adering to school run hours as a single parent and the school holidays also! When you apply for schools be sure to check to see if they even offer breakfast club and after school club!

You have to pay for full time childcare unfortunately.

I worked shifts when my kids were babies around their dad's hours.

We used a nursery open 8-6 but didn’t need to put DD in for all those hours as DP and I staggered our days; I did drop-off around 8.45 to be home to start work at 9; he’d start work at 8 to finish at 4 and pickup at 4.15.

It’s harder now she’s at school with a crap wraparound offer, DS is at nursery in the opposite direction, our hours have changed so DS has to have a longer day, and they take it in turns to be off sick. 🤨 I WFH which makes it a little easier as no commute to factor in, but that’s wiped out by DP’s hybrid role that means two days a week I’m doing school and nursery run both ends of the day, so can only manage a six-hour shift with a break (and I’ll have a breakdown without a break).

It’s hard! But we split the load, share the household stuff, have a cleaner, eat a lot of oven food, and prioritise family time and the children on weekends so they can cope with long days. Both of them love nursery/wraparound though.

You need a proper nursery or childminder, not a pre school that's only open until 3pm. Or a very part time job.

We pay for nursery, FT 5 days a week. You can't work without childcare so unless you're fortunate enough to have willing family nearby, you have to pay for it.

i work 30 hours a week, 9-3 live 5 mins from work and 7 mins from school so school drop off at 8.45am into work for 9, leave at 3 and then school pickup at 3.15pm. Also has a husband who does drop off and picks ups when his rota allows as he works every other week and get weekdays off to compensate which is really useful in the school holidays as minimises the need for holiday clubs a little

Do you actually need to work? Or are you just reacting to other peoples ideas about what you should be doing?

My local pre-school only opens school hours and term time.

I subsequently couldn't use it when I worked FT and had to travel 8 miles out of the area in the wrong direction to a private nursery that opened all year around 8 am to 5:30pm.

I'm now wedded to school hours and work 9-2:30 in an admin job and use the breakfast club attached to the school when I work from the office. Otherwise I WFH.

A lot of parents that use preschool and school are self employed, lots are cleaners, teaching assistants, working nights in care homes, or have others that can help with picking up and drop off. Either this or they have flexible WFH jobs that allow lunch to be taken over the school run.