What’s your job? Oh I only work part time…. But is that really true?

The average full time working week in the uk is 37.5 hours. The average part time working week is around 20 hours per week. There are 168 hours in each week.

How many hours do you think you work as a part time working mum? 

How much money do you think you save your family by being at home part time? 

Laundry- say a single load of washing takes 1.5 hours to wash and dry then another 20 mins to fold and put away that’s 2 hours just for one wash. So if you do 6 washes per week that is 12 hours (6 washes per week is nothing in our house my machine is on twice a day with everything from accidents to messy play)! If you were to pay for this service it costs around £4.50 per load not including drying that would be around £27 per week!

Cooking – I probably spend a hour cooking each day ( that would be 7 hours per week) possibly more on a Sunday so there is an extra 2 hours. In total 9 hours! A cook earns on average £11 per hour so if you employed a cook for 9 hours a week that would be £99 per week!

Cleaning – the average is apparently 66 mins per day but let’s just say an hour so there’s another 7 hours! ( for the record myself and anyone with more than one child will clean more than 7 hours per week for for absolutely no reason because within a hour of cleaning the house is back to square one !) So if you got a cleaner for 7 hours a week at £10 per hour that would be £70 pound!

Breastfeeding – only about half an hour to an hour a day now in total however it was much more when the youngest was small and could be up to 5 hours out of the day. Ok so not everyone breastfeeds but it has been a huge part of my life for over 3 years now so per year we have saved £1200 per year so over three years that’s £3600 – (I haven’t done it for the cost reasons however it’s a lovely little insensitive!) if you were to employ a “wet nurse” even though no one does it would be around £800 per week!!!! And if you wanted to buy a 100ml bottle of breast milk it is upwards of £100 pounds per bottle!

The school run – around 40 mins there an back usually I know this varies from mum to mum an school to school but on average so 5 days a week that would be about three hours per week. If you employed a childminder to do pick up an drop offs that would be around £60 per week!

For the children who aren’t in school that’s a full 12 hours of entertaining the children going to groups, walks, reading stories, changing nappies, bathing and bedtime routine, which goes on forever and a day another story, another wee wee another drink ….That totals to 84 hours per week!

If you were to pay for this service (only 50 hours in a nursery for a child under 2 the average cost would be around £250 per week)!

Food shopping – takes a good 2.5 hours especially if you go to Lidl or Aldi and have to pack your shopping twice!!!, once back into the trolly and then after an anxiety filled 3 minuets lashing items which shouldn’t placed be on top of each other, then to repack into your bags. I am aware you can order online I have tried it on a few occasions but it’s more hassle than it’s worth the sell by dates are always close to the actual date and the substitutes are insane! So I like to go myself.

Gardening – probably about 2 hours a week but if you were to pay a gardener at around £15 per hour that would be £30 in total!

Of course lots of these jobs are done simultaneously because mums are the best a multitasking!!! But if you were to add it all up the grand total would be 126.5 hours of work remember there is 168 hours in each week. So on average you save your family £536 per week, £2,144 per month and £25,728 per year us part time working mamas pretty amazing I think! 

That’s not including socialising or time with your other half if you have one! so that leaves 41.5 hours for sleeping and socialising divided by 7 is 5.9 hours per night!

But remember you’re on call every night with zero coffee / lunch breaks and zero holidays/sick days and no pay! We wouldn’t change it for the world but sometimes you have to sit back and realise how much you actually do! You DO contribute to your family (massively may I add) you do this for love and nothing else. & contrary to popular belief you don’t just watch This Morning in your jarmies being a hot mess. By half 11 you’ve already done two loads of washing, fed, washed and dressed the kids, watered the plants read two stories and of course said NO at least 150 times.

Not forgetting the actual job you go to when you are “officially working part time”  preparation for work is a big thing in our house! Everything has to be out and ready before I leave the house:

Jarmies.

Tea.

Calpol.

Emergency phone numbers in case I am needed.

Clothes out for the next day.

Not forgetting my own tea, clothes, pens for work!

But Daddy doesn’t have to do this when he leaves for work, he just packs his bag, showers himself has a coffee an off he goes. 

My husband works extremely hard for our family but so do I, in fact just because I don’t get paid for the hours I work at home doesn’t mean I don’t do them! 

A little side note it’s taken me 10 days to write this blog because time is a commodity I don’t possess. As my husband can vouch for with my consistently hairy legs! & I absolutely applaud anyone who can work full time as well as being a mother. I won’t be going back full time until my girls leave home! 

Keep your heads up mamas it’s hard now but it won’t last forever and make sure you’re appreciated for all the hard work you put in! 

Insta – @thedrapergirls

Written  by Amy McPhillips for her blog, The Draper Girls.