Career change or pregnancy?

[Frogy11]

I'm 31 and have been working as a manager of a shop since September. I'm getting married in August and our plan was for me to come off birth control straight away.
Unfortunately, I HATE my job. For 6 months I've kept waiting for it to get better but it hasn't and I'm utterly miserable at work.

I would love to become a teacher and have been advised by teacher friends that it would be a good path for me. I'm confident I could get on a course in September, but then I wouldn't be able to get pregnant for at least a year and a half after starting the course, considering I get a job immediately. I'd be 33 by the time we started trying.

Opinions: Am I better off finding a job I don't hate, potentially office administration/teaching assistance in a school, and continuing with family plans this year? And put off the career change until my future kids are in school?

I think don't put off having children now but have a plan for your future career

Would you be able to start the course when your baby is about 9-12 months, when normal maternity leave tends to come to an end anyway and people return to work? I’m not sure what the set up for a teaching course is - would there be the opportunity to do bits of it online from home?

I probably wouldn’t do the entire three year course and then take at least a year off to have a baby. You’ll forget bits of what you’ve learned, plus you may find your priorities / life plan changes once the baby is here.

And would you want siblings for your baby? That would throw in more complication further down the line.

its a difficult time of your life to start a new career, to be honest. Esp one that needs a three year course to train on.

May be best concentrating on getting whatever qualifications are needed for being a teaching assistant (rather than a teacher) under your belt before you have the baby (can continue through pregnancy normally until at least 7 months I would have thought). I assume the qualifications needed are much less and could be completed within a year but don’t know? Then you can work part time as a teaching assistant around pregnancies / toddler years using nursery funding when it kicks in. Once the children are all in full time school then upgrade your qualifications to a teaching degree - may need less than a 3 year course to do this once you have 5 years of teaching assistant experience as well

Do you already have a degree?

I'm a teacher and would've found it really hard, nearing impossible, to train with a young baby at home. It totally consumes your life. You have to build your bank of resources and mark in the evenings and weekends. There is also a huge amount of admin to do in schools, not to mention all the time you spend phoning parents or running clubs/detentions.

Babies consume your life too. If I were you I would put off training until your child/ren are older and you have more time to devote to it.

I do but in textiles and that isn't much demand for that in my area.

The teacher training would only be a year, not three. But I'm considering the time to find a job after and get some months under my belt.

Thank you for the advice! I just wish I had started last September.

That's a great point. Balancing both can be challenging, but having a plan in place for your career while starting a family ensures you're prepared for the future. It’s all about finding the right balance and prioritizing what matters most at different stages of life.

Teaching is not a family friendly career.

In my part of the country, teaching jobs are hard to come by. It took me 6 years to get my first permanent teaching contract and many, many stints of supply teaching. Very unstable income for those!

So if you were truly passionate about becoming a teacher, I would train, qualify, do your ECT1&2 years (if you can manage to secure a role) and possibly a year after that too to gain confidence and experience enough to be able to leave work at work before starting a family.

Or, if my priority was having a family, I would knock teaching on the head entirely, change my job anyway and start TTC.

What is your utmost priority?

Ooh that sounds rough. Ultimately, no job I've ever done has been family friendly. I've been mainly working for female owned businesses, but they're so small, you get no benefits at all and they expect the job to be your whole life. I'd rather commit my whole life to a job with meaning.

I feel passionate about it. It's not a question of if I'll train and qualify, it's just when. I really appreciate you responding! Definite food for thought!

Don't underestimate the intensity of he training or the early years after qualifying.

Absolutely! Do you enjoy being a teacher now?