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Klmorgan83
member
Full time vs. part time work
Klmorgan83
member
If you work outside the home, give me your best argument about why you like or dislike the amount of time that you work.
I currently work part time (40 hours every pay period) I started doing this after I had Noah. So I'm home quite a bit with the boys. I enjoy it and I'm glad I get to spend so much time with them. But by going part time we obviously took a huge hit financially. We pay our bills and the kids have what they need, but we don't have a lot left over to go out on many dates or spend much money on ourselves. Living with a tight money situation and lack of dates/couple time has put a strain on our marriage. We've been dealing with a lot of issues, but trying to make things work.
A full time position is opening at work soon. There will be a few people applying, so I wouldn't be guaranteed to get it, but I'm considering applying. It would take lots of stress off our money situation, thus giving us more freedom to do things for ourselves and as a couple, but I'm nervous about being away from the boys that much. I know lots of people work full time, but I guess I just need to hear that people still feel like that have lots of time with their kids/husbands.
So tell me your pros/cons....go!
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Re: Full time vs. part time work
After having Isabelle I went to part time and it was great. When Oliver was about 6 months I went back to work full time and it was awful. I do have to also say that I went from a job that was 5 minutes from home to a job that was 30 minutes from home so because of the extra drive time I would drop the kids off to my sisters house at 815am and I would not see them until 630 or 7, depending on if I got out of work on time and wasn't stuck on a phone call with a client. I would get home from work, sit down for dinner, bathe the kids, play for 30 minutes with them and then get them in bed. For me it was such a drastic change for me, for my husband and for the kids that it just didn't work for us. I ended up staying full time for 6 months and yes the money was nice, I was able to buy whatever I wanted because we had the extra money but the time spent with my kids ended up being more important than the "fun money" that we had. I now stay at home with the kids during the day and work part time at night, it works well for our family. Just remember that the grass is not always greener on the other side.
Michelle
It's not set in stone because they are supposedly trying to make some changes to the schedule that currently is in place. But it would probably be something along the lines of 8:30 to 5. It would include one weekend a month (which I already do), so 2 weeks it would be M-F, and 2 weeks I'd have one day off during the week.
The girl that is leaving worked once second shift a week, but that's something they're supposedly changing.
This is what I'm afraid of. We sort of do this now on the days that I do work. It's not horrible in the evenings on those days, but I'm afraid I'll hate it if it's an every day thing.
I think it depends on the kind of work- would you always leave at a set time, or would you get "held up" on a regular basis. I don't mind working full time, but I love my free time every summer. Each person is going to be different when it comes to determining what is too much when it comes to work. Only you can answer that...
And I agree with shellbug- the grass isn't always greener. Finding a balance between what you want monetarily vs what you want for your family is a tricky thing. I know for dh and I, we made a lot of sacrifices when B first arrived for him to stay home with him a bunch. We learned to change our spending habits, and now that he's working more we are appreciating the added income more. I don't know if that makes any sense or not. GL in what you decide.
I work in a hospital (x-ray) so for me coming and going has always been pretty regular. I usually always leave on time, or maybe just a few minutes late. I'm not nice enough to stay for hours to help out the second shift people! Basically there's no reason I ever have to stay late unless I choose to on my own.
Would any of the extra money have to go to child care?
I don't know what your DH's schedule is like, but I have often said that I don't know how I could work full-time with my husband in the job that he's in. Between his schedule changing, him working overtime, the time he spends in court, etc., I can't really rely on him regularly for child care. Shift work is tough. Even when I worked part-time, he would suddenly have to go to court on his regular off day when I had to work, and I would be scrambling to find child care. It made me really resentful at times.
On the other hand, if we could not afford to ever eat out or vacation or splurge from time to time, it would be really difficult for me to stay at home as well.
Do either of you have an opportunity to pick up overtime for a little extra money?
Photo by Melissa Nicole Photography
Quick ? - If you did do the full time & decided it wasn't for you is there anyway you could go back to part time or are you stuck? The thought of being stuck & miserable is what would scare me.
The whole working all day - picking up Nolan - going home & putting him to bed without getting to spend much time with him while awake (M-F) really justified my decision to become a SAHM.
If you think that you will miss the boys now it will be so much harder than you ever think it will be. If financially you are doing o.k. now then I would stay where you are at the moment. I always keep hearing the same thing "I never regretted spending more time with my kids"
No, DH works 24 on 48 off. So he's available to watch them on his days off if I'm working....which is what we do now. The boys are only watched by someone else a few days a month now (my Mom or MIL) If I went full time it would be the same, just with my Mom watching them more often. So no extra money would ever go to a sitter.
I could pick up days but it's really too random and not enough to make any difference when it came to money. DH also could be he gets very little sleep the days he does work since it's a 24 hour job, so he can't handle any less sleep!
I left my position as a teacher 2 years ago to stay home and do in-home childcare. It has been a big change, but it has been sooooo worth it to me. I took a pay-cut there. And then just last fall, DH decided to go back to school to get his teaching degree. He will be finished in the fall of 2012. So $ has been tight around here, but I'm really glad that there is an end in sight. While neither of us will be bajillionaires, we both wanted careers where we could spend as much time with family as possible.
Just coming from the place I'm in now, if I were in your shoes, I would try to pick up all those random shifts whenever they happened and stash those funds away for fun. Or try to cut money somewhere in your budget to have more fun money. Do you coupon a lot? Are there any really really part time jobs you could do? Like 5 hours or less a month, just for a little extra money for fun? Right now I tutor once a week which brings home a little over an extra $100 per month. I love tutoring and while it's difficult to leave the house that evening every week, the extra money is really nice to have.
So... if it were me I would probably make the financial sacrifices and try to find cheap ways to have fun now. However, I would NOT do it if I felt that it was putting too much of a strain on my marriage. Happiness comes first and what is best for your family may not be the same as others. Good luck with your decision!