My kids come first.. Am I wrong?

[Siobhan]

I am a working mum and I am lucky so far as in my job allows me to start work at 9am so I can get my daughter to school but I find when trying for a promotion I am blocked because I can't come in at 7am!! What happened to the good old days of 9 - 5 work and why does it always seem that working hours get longer and longer.
What happened to family values? why do you have to work so long now when "leaving it til tomorrow" was very acceptable before?
So what is left for working parent who kids have to be in school by nine and you don't have a drop off and pick up service? Are we resigned to working from home or other place who don't seem to mind if you come in after 9?

I would like your views on this both as single person who works long hours and parents who would like more time at home.

[Chloe O'brien]

I am a single parent I work 17.5 hours a week. Up until last months I was working 30 hours a week (9.30 - 4) but the job ended due to government funding. The only job I could get in the college were I work was the part-time post that I now hold, but not only did I lose half my salary I also had to drop down a grade in the pay scale. I spent 3 years studing full-time before marley went to school and earned myself a degree by rights I should be earning no less than £25 grand a year but I will be lucky if I earn even half of that because I can only work during school hours as I have no-one else to look after marley. I do feel as if I am being punished at times as there has been jobs advertised that I could probably do standing on my head but because they are full-time positions I couldn't apply for them. I have to think or marley needs first when it comes to here well being and education and I just wish that government officals would think a bit more when they are trying to encourage more parents to work. Flexi-time and call centre work is all fine and well when you have more than one adult to share the responsibilities, but what about parents or gaurdians who are coping on their own.

[Siobhan]

exactly the way I feel. There is lots of jobs I can do standing on my head but because, god forbid, I have children, I am unable to do them. I am working in a call center at the moment but can't get promoted as they want me to work outside the hours I am doing now.

[Jessie Wallace]

Where i work they do a really good scheme for the parents with kids, where they can come in at 9 instead of 8, and finnish aty either 1 or 2, depends on what the shift needs. They also get every school holiday of, and in the summer holidays they get 2 weeks pay, if they come a work 1 weekend day every 2 weeks, just to help out with the rest of the staff who are on holiday. It's a really good way of doing things i think. (Hope that makes sence)

[Trinity]

I have two kids, and although I am not a single parent my husband's work often takes him away for weeks at a time at short notice.

In the UK there is supposedly a right to flexible working, it is up to the employeer to justify not allowing flexible hours.

Generally people do not push for what they want in case it goes against them in other ways - e.g no promotion or whatever.

I remember when I first had my eldest, at that time I was an internal auditor with a local authority. I was told initially that the job was unsuited to job-share by my boss. When I appealed to HR he found that he had no graounds to block me and I got the hours I wanted. Promotion was just about ruled out by the ill will caused, though!

I thought that things had moved on in the intervening 14 years!

I currently work 80% of time (although I am still off sick right now until November)

My hours are:
mon 9 - 5
tues - thurs 9 - 3.30 (only 30 mins for lunch)
fri 9 -12

With the exception of monday the hours fit well with my kids school hours, they get a half day evey Friday.

I guess I am really lucky.

[Jojo]

When I wasn't working from home, I had to get a childminder to have my eldest from 7.30 until school time (she'd take him there), then either she'd pick him up and have him till 6pm or he would stay in an after school club, luckily based at his then school. This worked ok but cost an absolute fortunte, which made it hardly worth me working.

I was nearly turned down my last job, because of having children. Apparently they really wanted me on board, but were in two minds because of any time I may have needed to take off due to the kids being ill or anything like that - discrimination, is what its called and something should be done about it.

I was taken on by the firm and worked there for 4 years until I had Ci (and gained promotion and a move into Engineering at the same time, to the complete anger and jealousy of my previous colleagues :rolleyes: ).

I do know of a lot of people though, that due to childcare costs etc, it would cost them less to stay at home than to go to work. What happened to free choice ?! :searchme:

[Chloe O'brien]

I have to pay childcare cost for the after school club. I was going to take marley out of the club but because I signed a contract in June agreeing to pay for a block term at the after-school club I have to pay £95 a month until christmas so I have just put her to the club. I'm not sure what I will do after christmas as I am looking for a job with extra hours and I don't want to take her out as I may got be able to get another place as they are like gold dust. I am slightly better of working than I would be if I was on benefits. But what the government are giving in one hand they are taking it back in the other.

[Siobhan]

£95 is that all!! I have to pay €420 per month for Charley's afterschool care and €790 a month for Ben full time.. I have to work.. Everyone says you save if you stay at home (i.e. the childcare costs) but the money on benefit here won't cover my rent and bills etc... I am better of working but find it hard to make more money cause I can't get in before 9am

[Chloe O'brien]

I'm the same. there is flexi-time available for staff but you have to be working full-time to qualify for it. Full-time hours are normally between 8.45 am and 4.45pm you can start at 8.30 if you're on flexi. Ideally I would like to work between 20 and 25 hours a week that would fit in with the school hours. but they said that they can't extend my hours at the moment as there is not enough money in the budget, and they can't cut the hours of a full-time position as if I leave then they won't be able to re-advertise it as a full-time post.

[Trinity]

When I was job sharing - eons ago, my childcare costs for one under five took 45% of my take home salary. It wasn't really worth working when I had my second child until he reached nursery age, and I was lucky that I could afford to stay home.

My most recent childcare costs were a child minder for one 11 year old after school for 2 hours on a monday - this cost £12 per week.

My kids are now 14 and 12 and both in high school, and I allow them to stay at home for a couple of hours without me.

My main problem is with the summer holidays. I am lucky as I get 6 weeks paid annual leave, plus 10 public holidays and the 3 days between Christmas and New Year. This is still nowhere near the 13 weeks the kids are out of school, and I pay a fortune in sports camps etc. It is a minimum of £90 per week per child for school hours. I appreciate that this must seem like a very little compared with the cost of private nurseries etc - but really the cost go on for a long time.

[Abbie]

Ok well im stil a child, well teenager and well dont have kids but when i was younger i remember my gran always being there in the morning before we went to school and she was there when we got back, now we moved i dont have that and my parents are here as i leave eralier than them now, i still wish that those years ago my parents were there sometimes, i just think it would of been nicer, not that i didnt like my gran of course i just thought it would be nice.

[Abi]

I am a working mum and I am lucky so far as in my job allows me to start work at 9am so I can get my daughter to school but I find when trying for a promotion I am blocked because I can't come in at 7am!! What happened to the good old days of 9 - 5 work and why does it always seem that working hours get longer and longer.
What happened to family values? why do you have to work so long now when "leaving it til tomorrow" was very acceptable before?
So what is left for working parent who kids have to be in school by nine and you don't have a drop off and pick up service? Are we resigned to working from home or other place who don't seem to mind if you come in after 9?

I would like your views on this both as single person who works long hours and parents who would like more time at home.

I completly agree with you- i think that if you have to work while bringing up children, then your bosses should take that into consideration, and let you have leniant hours. I'm sure that you could do just as much work, in a couple of hours less, so they shouldn't force parents, and especially single parents, to do such long hours.

I was lucky as a child to have my Mum at home all the time, whilst my Dad was out working. Then we spent weekends and after school times as a parent, and it did me a lot of good. When my Dad died, i was still pretty young at 11/12, and the place that my Mum worked for during school hours was very leniant because of that. They made sure she got home half an hour before i did, and everything. And looking back, that did me a lot of good in a time when i needed her to be around.

Now, i know the circumstances are slightly different, but i think that a parent should be able to work, and still be there for their child if they want/need to. And bosses should help you do that, and not be ackward about it.

[Jojo]

I know when I was looking at going back to work outside of the home (and not work from home as I do work aswell as stay at home and look after my boys :D ) it was going to cost me £100 per week for Liam as a baby, £85 per week for Ci and luckily Ste is that much older so wouldn't need to do anything with him now (but only for an hour for my own peace of mind etc ) so basically looking at £200 per week for them both. Thats £800 per month and there isn't many jobs in the South West where you can a lot more than that for take home pay. I'd have ended up working outside the home for about £200 a week, if I managed to find myself an excellently paid job, which there are very few and extremely difficult to find.

Being employers ourselves, if our employees need time off for family reasons or a day off at short notice, thats fine with us - its far better to have someone working for you that is happy in their work, than someone who doesn't want to come in each day, or is concerned about requesting time off because their child is ill or childcare has gone slightly awry. My children are the most important thing in my and my hubby's lives and we know this is the same for our employees, so why make their lives difficult about it - it doesn't achieve anything at the end of the day.

[Chloe O'brien]

The UK is one of the worst countries in western europe when it comes to supporting and encouraging parents to go out and work. Is it too much to ask of an employer to be a bit more flexible and compasionate with their employees. Staff would less stressed out at work because they wouldn't have to worry about their kids or the childcare costs if they had suitable hours to work.

[inkyskin]

I have 2 kids,one who is 6 and one who will be 3 in feb,i'm unable to work a proper job due to the fact that my kids have no grandparents and a father who has tham 2 days a week but pays me nothing towards the upkeep.
I can't wait until my little boy starts school so i can get some form of work!!