How many of you went straight back to the 40 hours a week or full time schedule?? I work with my family and they think it is ridiculous of me to want an easier transition but many people I know have gone back to their jobs parts time or just reduced hours per week until they got a routine schedule with LO. I tryly think this is MIL way of getting DD all to herself but that is another issue.
Just wondering if I am being unreasonable to want to only work 30 hours a week for a few weeks. BTW, it is an hour drive to work and an hour drive home as well!
Re: Going back to work question
I did go straight back to 40 hours, but my boss did offer to let me come back part time for awhile. It wasn't financially feasible for us, but it was nice to know I had the option.
I do NOT think it's unreasonable to transition back to work, especially when you are spending 2 hrs a day commuting.
No it's not unreasonable. With both my kids, I phased back where I was working 32 hours (so 4 days w/ Friday off). In my case, I had vacation time, so that day was paid.
In my experience, the biggest reason I needed this was simply being so tired. Neither kid was sleeping through the night (with 1, she was 3 months when I returned to work, with 2, he was 4 months), so by the time Friday rolled around, I was exhasuted. Also, I was able to knock out some household stuff, thus making weekends more enjoyable.
Now that #2 is nearly a year, I'm actually thinking about doing a compressed work week (4, 10 hour days) so that I can get back to 3 day weekend. I would NOT have considered this in the beginning, but I work from home, so that eliminates commuting time.
I wish I could have eased back in with less hours for awhile, but it was not an option with my job. It is rough going right from being home to working full-time and learning how to handle working during the day and caring for a baby at night, especially if your DC is not sleeping through the night (I went back to work at 2.5mo, DS did not STTN until 4.5mo- I was a zombie and definitely not my most productive).
If it is an option for you, I would absolutely jump on it!