What career did you go back to after having your baby?

I got a job in a school! Good hours, no weekends - which I’d done my whole professional life, so that was a dream!! And then school holidays off too

I got a new job as a public health assistant (nhs) visit the schools to do children's hearing and eye tests, work from home during all school holidays and are encouraged to take annual leave at these times also!

I used to work evenings in care.. so my husband would get home from work.. do a quick handover then I was out the door to go to work till 11pm. The salaries aren’t amazing but when you way up that you have no pay nothing for childcare it makes a difference I found - depends how much you need / want to earn.. I worked 3 nights one week, and 5 nights the next on a 2 week rotation.. it did mean less time with my husband but I didn’t miss much of the kids just their bedtime and we kept 2 full salaries instead of spending on childcare x

I’m a freelancer but managed to go back to the same industry in a different role which allowed me flexi time and to mostly work from home. It’s not as well paid as my previous role but also not as stressful or tiring. I was previously an art director and now a graphic designer at the moment.

I left baking once I found out I was pregnant, and worked at a city court for just under 2 years, then went back to baking 3 months ago. The court had benefits and good hours, just wasn't a good fit for me personally. I am glad I returned to baking.

We run a restaurant. It’s not great hours for 2 little ones but we make it work and I do the minimum hours on site and make up hours doing admin through the day. As it’s our business we can take what days/hours we work which is working at the moment. Once they’re in school full time I’ll be stepping back and finding something new.

Teacher. Never far away from the next break with my babies and I can opt for term time only childcare contracts saving me a lot of money. x

I’m looking to leave teaching. I don’t think it’s possible to be a good teacher and have a work life balance. I personally wouldn’t advise it.

Back to teaching but only part time.

Teaching but part time, it's absolutely not family friendly in terms of working hours and the work needed at home. I couldn't do full time.

I’m a nurse. I work 13 (12 hour) shifts in 28 days and I put in a flexible working request so I don’t work Mondays and Tuesdays. The boy is in nursery Wednesdays and Thursdays. And my husband doesn’t work the weekend. If I am off on a Friday my husband works otherwise he arranges his workload so he can be free on a Friday or on a rare occasion his “auntie” looks after him.

@Steph @Becky have you worked in multiple schools? I used to think this until I moved to my current school. My SLT always put teacher wellbeing and work/life balance at the forefront of everything we do. Most of us are out the door by 5pm and don't work at home other than during assessment/report periods.

I went back to the same job But if feel isn’t working for us mi leave my daughter for a long day from 8 am to 5pm in the nursery three days a week she get really tired from it and i miss her a lot So put in a flexible request to work one hour less and one day less Let see what they will say ..

I'm a shift worker working rotating 12hr shifts, have been really lucky to find a nursery that will follow my shift pattern so still get a lot of time at home with my daughter. She starts school this September so looking to get a mon-fri days job to be home on an evening and weekend

I wonder this too, I considered phlebotomy and just working as bank staff as there's always a need for them. Or just starting my own business but the question is what product/service that isn't already amongst an oversaturated market.

I am currently doing a course online to be able to teach English to Native speakers, I'll be able to do this from home on my own terms and hours. I'd look into finding something that you can manage yourself and around childcare x

@Becky lately I've noticed this within schools teachers job sharing. Last year my children had two different teachers on set days each week.

I’m in tech. I work from home mostly but I do go in once a week and have a nanny for that day. It’s a dream and hard at times with two little ones but I’m super grateful. And I am still recognized as a hard working member of our team so it’s possible!

Hospitality manager I run a pub in central London. It’s shift work and lots of very early mornings and very late nights. Not family friendly at all but it pays so well that it’s hard to get out of 😭

I’m a nanny, my LO will come to work with me when I finish my mat leave

I’m due in 3 and a half weeks and am just in the process of finishing my PhD in archaeology so slightly different … but am planning to look into doing a post doc in academia hopefully at my current uni … but that could take a while to get into so I’m going to look at work from home options and part time work in the sector, even if it’s just guiding at one of the local historic houses a couple of days a week when I’m ready. I’ll also be publishing my thesis (and got a few plans in terms of books) so will use this time to work on that too.

I managed to get a sleep over job in a supported living facility for kids that were under social services. So 24 hour shift which consisted of helping them get to school or work and cleaning their house. 8pm night staff come in and I go off to bed until 8am and get paid. I did that 2x a week first 12 hours were £14 an hour and for the sleep over shift you get £70 so overall you earned £240ish for that 1 shift but my daughter would go to her grans for the 24 hour shift and my partner would just work normal so I didn’t miss out on anything as a family x

@Anita Yes I think it's always been this way though. I'm also secondary so it's not quite the same as primary where they have to share. I have multiple classes but I am their only teacher for my subject as the timetable has been purposely written that way :)

@Becky when I went to primary I had the same one teacher week in week out, so it was new to me as in their first year of school they only had 1 teacher as well.