Working at home : A short term solution that creates a long term problem

Jon

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For those of you that work full time at home to avoid those costly childcare costs do you worry that you are create problems for your career further down the line.

It may be that before getting pregnant you had a career in a particular area, you take a 4-5 year career break to bring your child up until they are able to go to 1st school and you spend that time doing work from home but by the time you come back to your career things have moved on and you are 4 years behind. So while you have saved money by not paying out for child care you have actually managed to put back your career a bit.

Is it better to go straight back to work after maternity leave, suck up those costs and get straight back on with your career as the faster you move up the food chain the quicker you will get a higher paid role.

Maybe people were more 'forced' into going back to work after maternity because years ago there weren't all the opportunities that there are now to work and earn online from home


I suppose what I am asking is can it be damaging to your career no matter what profession you are in if you take those years off to keep those childcare costs down..
 

alditoharrods

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I would be interested to know about it from another viewpoint - what about getting finance for things like mortgages? Or even renting a property - unless you have 3 years worth of accounts as a self employed person, you typically have to pay 6 months rent in advance and have a guarantor (in my area, with an agency).
 

Jon

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I too would be interested in hearing from those that ONLY earn by working from home and how they find getting finance / phone contract / new rentals etc..

When I was contracting, which I did for 2-3 years, getting a mobile phone contract was enough of a trouble!
 

busybusy

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All I can do is share my thoughts on how working from home impacts my family.
My husband is an employee and has worked at home twice a week for about 9 years. It is part of the culture of his work so career wise zero impact. He works office hours.

When he first started he had to have the best broadband rather than the cheapest, this isn't really an issue anymore. I was working in an office at the time so used to text him asking him to load/unload washing machine. Used to drive him mad and he would reply "no I am working". My children don't really understand why daddy is at home but ignoring them even though he did it before they was born. Our study is downstairs so they understand if the door is shut daddy is on a call.

For our family the benefits are a reduction in commute costs and my husband gets a bit more sleep if he doesn't need to be in the office.
Also as the study is downstairs I can leave the youngest with DocMcStuffins while I pick her sister up from school.

Without sounding a bit NETMUMs (sorry if that offends) looking after children is a full time job. For our family it would be impossible to work a 9-5 at home and be sole carer of children at the same time.
 

caledonia1972

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I only work from home and to be perfectly honest I am not bothered about a "career". Not everyone wants to move up the food chain and be the boss. I am much happier with the flexibility of working for myself than I ever was sitting in an office. I suppose I am in a pretty traditional relationship where my husband is the main breadwinner, I am mostly at home. I did work for a long time before we had kids but didn't really enjoy it and did it because I had to. We are now in the fortunate position that I don't really need to work to pay the bills so what I earn is a bonus. Husband is well paid but often away overnight (as an example it's now Thursday evening, he left home at 5am Tuesday morning and won't be home until midnight tomight) so all the running about after the kids is down to me.

Once the kids are at school it doesn't get any easier! OK, you don't have to pay for childcare, but as any parent will know there is a constant procession of sports days, assemblies, Christmas concerts, dance shows or "learning festivals" which parents are invited to - in the term between Easter and the end of June I was in school at least once a week. Plus my kids do Brownies, dancing, Scouts, Beavers, swimming etc - if I were in a "career" job or even the standard 9-5 Monday to Friday they would miss out as they would be in afterschool club and there would be nobody to take them. We don't have family nearby and although I have lots of friends who help me out when I'm stuck, I wouldn't like to ask them to commit to things regularly.

I've never had any problem with getting new mobile phone contracts or anything else. Most of the credit we apply for in my husband's name (like when we bought new sofas) as he's the earner, but I got a new contract with Vodafone in January no bother in my sole name. We have lived at this address for over 7 years though, have a spotless credit record and everything is in joint names, so i'm piggybacking off his good earnings in a way. I know things have changed but my first job in the late 1990s was on a two year rolling temp contract and we got a mortgage based on that without any problems.
 

Jon

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That's a good point aldiharrods

Does your fiancé work full time? Could you piggyback off his earnings?
 

auntygeek

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I definitely think it depends on how important career is to you. For some, their aspiration is to raise their kids and to provide a lovely, stable, comfortable home life for their family. This might be the husband OR the wife! I think it's important not to devalue this as anything less than a valid life choice and not to look down on women who choose to do this. Similarly, career might be really important to others - not for money, or status, but perhaps because you derive a lot of fulfillment from your area of work, or you've put a lot of effort into it over the years. And it's not for other women to devalue THAT as a life choice either of course.

We will be a two mum household when we decide to have a kid, but my wife-to-be has already said she wants to stay at home. She enjoys being at home, even now, and although she is a mature student at 25 she doesn't have any firm career plans. I am 4 years older but already have an MSc and 4 years of experience in my chosen field. I have a strong idea of where I want to go and because of my qualifications and experience I will always earn more. Therefore for us it makes good financial sense that I'm the breadwinner and I continue to do so.

I hope that my partner will continue to work as much as she can to contribute to our earnings though :)

EDIT - Feminist point, why should women who choose to raise their kids have to suffer in terms of their career??? We need more opportunities for people returning from maternity leave and not assume they are '4 years out of date' or lacking the skills or common sense to function in a work place like the rest of society!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

alditoharrods

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Jon@TheMoneyShed said:
That's a good point aldiharrods

Does your fiancé work full time? Could you piggyback off his earnings?

I've only just seen this. He works for a supermarket, so his earnings are a heck of a lot less than mine - around £10k less.
 

iggysmum

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alditoharrods said:
I would be interested to know about it from another viewpoint - what about getting finance for things like mortgages? Or even renting a property - unless you have 3 years worth of accounts as a self employed person, you typically have to pay 6 months rent in advance and have a guarantor (in my area, with an agency).

I am self employed and when we were moving 10 years ago the building society would not accept my earnings as I did my accounts myself and not by an accountant - I had been trading for just under 3 years.

We were then left with a bit of a shortfall, but , with a bit of help (not financial )we got there in the end.

I have a good credit record but as soon as I mention I am self employed they always say we have to take my hubbys earnings into account(might also be that I do not earn lots)

I finally took out a phone contract 3 years ago after 10+ years on PAYG , which was no problem to do but whether it was because it was an ''upgrade'' with the same company I have been with from the very begining I do not know.

I worked as soon as I turned 16(paper rounds and babysitting before I was 16 ), left work when I had my first child. I had the odd part time job when the boys were little but was more a SAHM until my boys were 6 and 4 and then became self employed.

I have not really been a career type as in having to climb the ladder, as long as my family are healthy and happy and we had a roof over our heads and food on the table - I am happy :)
 

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