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What is your work situation? After having a child, did anyone go from full-time to part-time, work in the office to working from home, or something else? I am interested to hear if people had made big changes like that, and if your new situation works better for you.”

Asked by Amanda on 24th April 2008 | 6 replies

6 replies so far...

I was working as an English teacher when I got pregnant with my first. Since I´d already lost 3 pregnancies, I didn´t think this one would work, so I arranged to have a week off around 8 weeks, which is when I usually miscarried. But this time it stuck!

Originally, I thought about continuing to work, since it would only be in the morning, but when my son was born, he had an imperforated anus and had to have a colostomy, which meant he needed special attention and I decided to stay at home with him. I went bonkers with just me and the baby!

When my son was 7 months old, I discovered I was pregnant again, so going back to work after a year wasn´t going to be an option. Instead, I started going to the internet cafe every day, while my husband looked after our son, and started working as a freelance writer. Finally we got internet at home and now I work full time out of my kitchen. My husband actually quit his teaching job and just works nights as a musician now, so he can look after the boys during the day.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Genesis on 26th April 2008
I am in the middle of a transition right now. After my first (she's 4) I went back to work full-time and struggled with being away from my baby. Now I have a 3-month old and I just came back to work full-time. I am working next week full time and then going part time (full-day tues and thurs., half day on Weds) at my regular job and teaching a class on M and W evenings. I'll update when I really start on the part-time schedule. I definitely feel like I won't get enough accomplished on my part-time schedule to please my boss. IThere are some interesting articles out there on working part-time, like this one : http://www.businessweek.com/careers/workingparents/blog/archives/2007/07/a_new_study_by.html

Flag as inappropriate Posted by biomom on 25th April 2008
After I had my daughter, I brought her to work with me until she was about a year old. At that time she was starting to walk and was too busy to be stuck in an office with me all day. Now she goes to daycare 3x a week and I work at home with her the other two days. I love being with her and we usually try to get outside for lunch to break up the day.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Krista on 25th April 2008
For my first I was young and didn't have a choice - went to work after 6 weeks.

My second and third came later when I was in my career. For my second I took a year off thinking I'd stay at home but went absolutely crazy and got a job again. For my last, it was at a time when my company was restructuring and I voluntarily took a package rather than relocating (could have stayed on but things were not secure). So, I got a really good package with my maternity benefits at four months and stayed at home for a year and a half. I wasn't as crazy the second time around and really wasn't sure if I'd go back or not. I got a call from an old collegue for a consulting job and started working three days per week. After four months, I was itching to be full time again.

I really love to work. I'm not so good at the stay at home mom thing. But, having the time off and the second time around with a transition made things easier. If I had another (and NO we are not having anymore LOL), I'd do the standard maternity leave, come back the three days and eventually transition back to full time.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Michele on 24th April 2008
I went from working full-time before I had kids to halftime after my first was born to 80% time when I discovered that working half-time didn't allow me to get enough accomplished at work to be useful. And I wasn't sorry to have that 30% of pay back either.

When my second was tiny, I worked a crazy schedule (5:30 to 7:30 M-Th mornings at home, then 9 to 5 M, T, Th in the office) to be able to be home and available more to the kids. I'm pretty much on flex time, so that worked when the baby was consistently needing a feeding at 5 a.m. anyway. Now I'm back to working 9 to 5 M-Th (usually one day a week at home, but I have childcare).

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Jan on 24th April 2008
With the birth of our third child, childcare became cost prohibitive. My husband and I work opposite shifts to get the parenting and the working all done. I have a job that lets me work 7-2 Mon-Thurs and 7-5 on Fridays so I can get as close to 40 hours as possible. My husband works 2:30-11 Sun-Thurs. He gets the kids up and takes the older two to school and cares for the baby until he brings her to me at 2:00 and then goes on to work. I am home when the kids get home from school and take the evening shift of dinner, homework, baths and bed. We cherish Friday nights and Saturdays together and don't commit to much on those days except being together. Works for us!

Flag as inappropriate Posted by MortonPixie on 24th April 2008