Working Mums

I returned to work at 60% when Gina was 2 months old and then increased that to 80%. This time around, I'm having 3 months off and returning at 80% after that.
I'm lucky as far as childcare goes as my gran has been able to look after Gina and I also work part of the time from home so can take care of her and do my hours in the evening/weekends etc. Gina goes to daycare 2 days a week and it costs us $122pw (5 days are around $260pw)
Returning to work is def do-able. I found expressing at work the biggest pain but managed OK.

fifi101 I'm already thinking about this and still TTC.

Daycare varies between but I've found on average it to be between $5 per hour for an 8 hour day I've budget $200 per week thats in Palmy.
I have friends in Auckland paying a lot more.

Financially we can manage probably 6-7 months before it starts to hurt.
Also like you I love my job.

I don't think its too early, especially as some of the more popular daycares have waiting lists.

Hi fifi101
Sounds like you are thinking very similar to me - early days for us too (5wks) but I too love my job and looking at the numbers financially will have to return to work after approx 6mths or there abouts.
I checked out some childcare centres just yesterday and about $1K per month for full time care seems to be average for childcare centres around Auckland (not sure where you are - may be cheaper down country?). A freind of mine uses in home childcare and shares with a girl from her coffee group and this works out to similar price as daycare centre.
Not sure if this is helpful or not?!!
Take care and all the best for healthy happy pregnancy!
Rachel

I'm aiming to take 12 months off, but it looks like we'll have to take a mortgage repayment holiday for the last three months which we're not so happy about. I may head back earlier - my role is probably one where I could start with 1/2 a day at 6 month, then 2 days at 8 months etc. I'm reluctant to have the baby in too much care too early. I'm also very cautious about burnout for myself and am quite worried that if I go back to work .8 or full time that I will really struggle which is not fair to me, the baby or DH. However, starting back 1/2 a day a week - not sure what I'd do for child care as we don't have family here. I think I'm not in the acceptance stage about going back to work - I hate that I will need to financially

We originally planned that I would start work after 6 months (but work from home), however the reality of it sunk in and I ended up staying off work for the full year. Went back part time 10am to 2pm every day and that works out great for me. I have been very fortunate that my boss allowed this change of hours, and also that my mum looks after Alyssa while I'm at work.

We havent got a plan yet, but im most probably going to stay home until we have had all our kids(we want 2 or 3) I might go back to work part time, but I dont like working enough to justify going back full time and paying $200+ for childcare which would probably be all my wages! Id rather stay home and have the babies, then when we are done, go back to work full time.
We wouldnt be able to afford childcare on DF's wages even if we wanted to.
I guess we will just see what happens when the time comes, but at this stage, I wont be going back for quite some time.

Edited by Sheza

I went back to work when the gremlins were 5 mths, I planned to take a year but got bored and restless soooner. PLanning on not taking leave this time, maybe two weeks before and two afterwards but I'm in a different situation as I work from home and have a nanny.

I only took 5 months off when I had Michaela. It was the plan all along for me to go back after 5 months so I actually didn't go on maternity leave until the last minute (literally, I gave birth 8 hours after leaving work early on my last day).

Like doubledee I didn't want to go back but we felt we needed my income (although in hindsight we probably didn't need me back fulltime and I could have stayed off longer).

We decided shortly before I went back to work that we didn't want Michaela in daycare plus we'd be spending 1/2 DH's pay on daycare each fortnight so instead DH quit his job to stay at home with her. I could write a short novel on the pros and cons of that.

I started full time hours 5 days per week immediately and found it really difficult, so I reduced to four days a week with Wednesday's off for a couple of months while I got used to being back at work.

As we're now planning TTC #2 I've put a lot of thought into this. With what I now know I've decided that next time around:
1) I want to stay at home for longer without pressure to go back to work (I've said 12 months to DH but that's flexible).
2) When I do go back initially I'll only go back part time (3 days per week at the most and probably only 6 hours per day).
3) I want DH to continue working nights so he can be a daytime dad with the next one too because the experience for him and the relationship he has with Michaela is priceless (plus we'd rather not pay someone else).
4) I want Michaela to be in daycare for one of the days that I'm at work so DH can have time alone with the new baby.

I went back to work part time when Char was 7 months old, 3 days a week. Then after a few months of that, I decided to go back fulltime. Char goes into daycare, it costs us $151.90 a week for 9-4.15 each day.

We would like to have a second when she is at school and I will look to take about 4 months off then again.

Not sure where in NZ you are, but we used Waikato Family Homebased Childcare. There is also Porse or Barnados. No doubt there are lots of other companies too. Your local yellow pages should have listings