There's no right or wrong - it depends on the indiviual's circumstances. (Working Mothers in General)

Member Name: lyndsay3201

Product:	Working Mothers in General
Date:	04/02/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Make money

Disadvantages: Miss baby

Every persons circumstances are different, so I don't think that there is a right or wrong in this debate, I only know of my experience.

When I fell pregnant with my son (who is now seven months old ), I was hoping to take the maximum one year maternity leave so that I could spend as much time as possible with my baby. Also, after working 40 hours a week for the previous ten years I was looking forward to a little career break.

Unfortunatley, because we had failed in our quest to save money before the birth (impossible with all the bits and bobs we had to buy for the new baby), we found ourselves struggling financially just a few months into the maternity leave so I decided to arrange a return to work.

I then had the dilemma as to whether to return part time or full time. Having thought about it for a long time, I realised that I just didn't want my son to spend the majority of his time at a nursery - especially as he was so young.
Luckily, my employer was very helpful and arranged for me to work 24 hours per week and I returned when the little one was 5 months old.

I still do feel guilty for leaving him but think it would be devastating for me to have to leave him for eight hours every day.

Working 24 hours a week, I feel like I have got quite a nice balance as I still get lots of time at home but it is nice to get out and have adult conversation.

For those of us with mortgages and bills to pay, it is not in your best interest financially to work full time hours as nursery fees are so high. In my area it would cost close to £600 per month to place my son in nursery full time. When enquiring about this, I was shocked that I would only be entitled to £6 per week from the Tax Credits as they said that my income would be too high to claim more (i would class our household income as average but our outgoings take up 3/4 of it).

So all things considered, working part time is ideal for me however i could not possibly work full time because of nursery fees. It would be preferable for me to not work at all but, like most people, I could not afford it.

Summary: Childcare costs should really be lowered to allow more people to work full time.