Any SAHM or WOH moms that wish they could do something different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOHM here. I wish I could go part time - 24-32 hours? 9:30-3 would be more than enough...

Same.

I was a SAHM for 5 years, then went back into the school system for 2 years full time before scaling back to 4 hours/day. I"d love 5 hours a day if I could

[Anonymous]

Nope. I have a job at a good company, full flexibility and independence, 8 weeks off in vacation and sick annually, and I live very close to work (10 minutes).

[Anonymous]

I'm WOH, and I'd wish I could keep up the flexibility I have now, during the pandemic. Instead of working from 9-5, I can work whenever I want during the day, so long as I work 8 hours. That's so much better for me.

[Anonymous]

Careful what you wish for. I used to work part time. It was worse than working full time. Not only did I do drop off, but then I worked for 6 hours, did pick up at 3:30, did 80% of the cleaning, and 90% of the cooking. Unless you can guarantee you are also getting a few hours per day when you’re not “on”, then it’s not worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Careful what you wish for. I used to work part time. It was worse than working full time. Not only did I do drop off, but then I worked for 6 hours, did pick up at 3:30, did 80% of the cleaning, and 90% of the cooking. Unless you can guarantee you are also getting a few hours per day when you’re not “on”, then it’s not worth it.

This. I didn’t like working part-time. No respect at work, no benefits. Fit nicely into my kids drop-off/pick-up schedule, but I still had to do everything on both ends of that. Not worth it. Only thing it was good for was landing me a full time job, which is something.

[Anonymous]

A full time week at my company is 37.5 hours so that's what I work, plus I live 10-15 mins from work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm WOHM who is supposed to be 30hours a week but I wish I could just be fulltime. But DH works and travels a ton so the "part time" basically buys me the right to put boundaries in place at work. Its hard though to just be in the glorified helper role when I am capable of more professionally but can't lead anything since I'm not always available

I did this for a while, and ended up cutting back even more so that I had some flexibility in my schedule for sick days and school holidays. Having every minute of every day accounted for was not working.

I sometimes wonder what this will do for my career long term. It might have been better to just take the time off completely and come back when kids are older, rather than settling myself in as the “helper.”

[Anonymous]

I stay at home but was ready to go back this year. I taught for a long time and am ready to go back to that. I transferred my teaching certificate to my current state which we moved to and it just got approved a few weeks ago. I was excited to start the job hunt as teaching jobs pick up in the spring. Jokes on me, no one is hiring or giving interviews.

[Anonymous]

I'm mostly WAH now at a job that I don't care for much, but offers terrific work-life balance, and my kids are in upper elementary school so I feel I have it really good. But when they were much younger and I WOH, my husband and I really wished that we had staggered our schedules more so that the kids weren't in daycare as long. It was the commute that killed us both, plus the daycare was in the opposite direction of the metro and our house.

[Anonymous]

Nope. I am a partner at a small law firm and have a lot of control over my work. If I want to take time off to chaperone a field trip, I do. If I want to take vacation, I do. I have been set up to work from home or where ever I happen to be since before it was cool.

[Anonymous]

I am WOH and I want to work less but I am at a point in my career (late 40s) where I keep finding myself in up or out positions. I seem to end up in management roles a lot--I admit I'm reasonably good at it--but part of me longs for the days when it was just me doing my own job and then going home. Not worrying about meeting budget, about HR problems, about dealing with anxious employees....being a manager and having kids is too similar, I need a break!

[Anonymous]

No. I am happy that I am a SAHM. I regret deeply that I did not SAHM earlier when DC2 was born. I was always aspiring and working towards FIRE, but I had to stay in the workforce for an additional year when DC2 was born...but that is my only regret.

I will look into going back to work when my kids are in college if I feel bored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOHM here. I wish I could go part time - 24-32 hours? 9:30-3 would be more than enough...

Same.

Same. With a 20 minute commute.

Same here. 32 hours would be awesome.

Yup. Same here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WOHM here. I wish I could go part time - 24-32 hours? 9:30-3 would be more than enough...

Same.

Same. With a 20 minute commute.

Same here. 32 hours would be awesome.

Yup. Same here.

I dropped from 8-4:30 to 8-3:30 at the beginning of the year and it made a world of difference.

[Anonymous]

I left my job because my child with special needs had too many appointments a week to manage with a job plus we had just moved. My younger kid starts K next year and I was supposed to start sending out resumes this spring to gauge interest to decide if we were going to do aftercare. Not now. Who knows what the job market will be like in fall. Not to mention my spouse who has a big job has immune/lung issues and I don't want to expose him to the germs of more people if this continues.