How to work around my small children!?

[mommyandmore]

We have a 2 year old and a baby due in the Spring. I'm currently a teacher but will be stopping work as will need more flexibility and I want to spend more time with my children. I do still however need to earn some money whilst they are little. What do other parents do? I'm super flexible regarding what it is I do just as long as I can have some financial independence! DH and I live a good hours drive away from family so sadly they are not an option to help. Any advice or suggestions hugely appreciated! X

A) you've never been a teacher, right?

B) you can't base your opinion on one person who seems ok on the surface. Do they have children?

In my experience, because I was a teacher, and I do have small children, I can tell you the holidays are worth it IF you can handle the job.

100% with you here.

Ex teacher friends have started tutoring - definitely an option. Working at a preschool/forest school. Babysitting.
Nannying taking baby when toddler at nursery.

Supply teaching?

My friend does 1-2 days a week. Still benefits from school holiday and doesn't have masses of planning/meetings/being lead on subjects etc....

A) I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than be a teacher! My degree would have lent itself very well to teaching but I had no interest in working with children or young people!
B) How many other jobs have you done that were not teaching?
C) I referred to one person but I have a lot of teachers in my family
D) I work with a lot of teachers.

In my experience, and I used to have small children, I would have killed for those holidays! DH and I used to have to take our annual leave on different days so we could cover childcare.

Well yea that's my point. If you can cope with the job, the holidays are excellent. Unfortunately for me I spent 39 weeks of the year either very stressed at work or off with WRS. In the end the holidays weren't worth it. If it was an easy job, everyone would be doing it for the holidays. As proved by your point A, not many people want to teach nowadays, even with the perks.

My decision goes back 40 years! So hardly "nowadays"!

I don't think teachers have a clue how stressful other jobs can be, in comparison. We have to cope with the job, and with far less downtime. I've been off with WRS several times over the years.

Of course there are other stressful jobs out there. I wouldn't be recommending anyone work in a stressful job with long hours when they have young children.
The OP is wondering whether to stay in teaching to fit around a small family. I'm saying that the holidays are not always worth the stress, so she needs to think carefully.

Yeah because dads only have one single issue that bothers them. How to get more sex.

Not around me, no.

All the weeks of holidays certainly diminishes the stress that other employees experience who work 48 weeks a year!!

I think shift work is the way to go when you have young kids, especially if you only had to do it part time. My husband has a very inflexible 7-5 weekday job and my son started nursery this year. I didn’t realise how flexible a lot of other careers were until I realised it was me going to pick him up every day and pretty much every other child in his group was often being picked up by their dads or even both parents some of the time.

I left teaching to start my own business when I had my first child and it is sooo much better than teaching but it really has floored me. All I do is work and look after the kids. I’m really lucky that I do get to spend so much time with them but every day is like Groundhog Day. I have to get up mega early to work before the kids are up, then go through the whole rush every morning getting them ready to drop him at nursery, come home, deal with the baby, work some more, pick him up, work some more, deal with the whole dinner time rush, get them into bed and work some more. I can still be going at midnight but if you actually add up the uninterrupted work hours across the day it’s probably less than 8 hours! I just keep telling myself it’s better than teaching but I am so envious of people working part time and having actual days off where they don’t work!

Go down to 3 days a week.
Much better work / life balance.

It should, shouldn't it? But it hasn't for me. So many teachers are leaving, especially those with families. It can't be that amazing.

@Frannc I think that's the case with any full time job and kids. At least you've got the flexibility to work around the school/nursery runs.

The issue with teaching is you haven't got that flexibility, and you're often working evenings as well.
Part time/shift work as you say is often the answer, and sharing it out with partner.

Yep I left teaching and changed career, I now
have around 5-6 weeks holidays a year and I actually find it great that I get to decide when I take them. If I fancy a random day off…I can take it.

Tbf, pre-children I had this dreamy idea of SAHM life and that was what both me and DH desired for me. Then on maternity leave, I changed my mind. We could afford for me to be at home, but I didn't want to. So I decided to go part-time. Not everyone knows what they want before it happens, why does it matter? Unless they are financially struggling, then yes that's bad planning, but OP doesn't suggest this.

Hahahaha.

I dropped down to 0.4 but 2 full days when mine were really small. They went to nursery and I wasn't really earning much beyond the nursery fees but up my skills and it is amazing to have the holidays off when the kids are off school.

Pay for childcare. I for don't think there's a fab, well paid, fits around kids home based job. Otherwise we would all be doing it!

Don't give up your job yet. Take your maternity leave and see how you feel. Your oldest can go to nursery soon.

I would suggest you need a plan while they're tiny and then a longer term plan for when they're in school. Suggestions of eg tutoring might work now but will be annoying once they're in school and you will want/need to work mainly school hours. People kept suggesting tutoring to me but it would have to be after school and weekends which was pretty much the opposite of when I wanted to be working...
In my experience it is really not easy without grandparent support or at least one very high income/flexible job so don't feel like you are doing something wrong.
It is much easier once they're older and not ill every five minutes and can actually go to school/childcare fairly reliably...

Also working from home in the evening is harder as they get older and go to bed later unless you've got a separate office room.

I would think hard before giving up your job. The pull of staying home with kids and doing something different while they are small is strong but you're unlikely to earn much and it will be so much harder to get back to the level you were afterwards. Go part time in your current job or - if you're confident - do supply so you can pick hours but you're not losing experience and doing yourself out of a job in future. You won't feel like this forever and will thank yourself later.

Bear in mind that it is easier to manage days off for sick kids etc in an existing job if you have some goodwill with your managers and colleagues than to deal with it while on probation in a new job where your managers and colleagues don't know you. Also I would have really struggled with getting my head round a new job while also adjusting to going back to work after maternity leave. But everyone is different and it depends on your current job set up. If you are secondary exam marking could be an option but it is seasonal so not a year round option really.