Re-entering the world of paid employment

I have been too busy to blog again. At least I have a decent excuse this time. I am now gainfully employed and have spent the last few weeks arranging childcare and starting my new job.

It has been about four and a half years since I was last part of the paid workforce so this has all been a bit of a shock to the system. But it has also been great fun and I think I am going to thoroughly enjoy my new job.

Arranging childcare was a nightmare in the UK and used to eat up the vast majority of my wages. In New Zealand you are entitled to 20 hours a week free childcare which is great. However you are only allowed 6 hours of free care a day so this can restrict you a bit.

I decided that I wanted my youngest to continue to go to Kindergarten and so needed to place her with a child minder (or Home Educator as they are called here) who could take her to and collect her from Kindergarten. I went straight to "Porse" who are a large organisation which will attempt to match you with a Home Educator in your area and who matches your child's needs and parenting style. You can then go and check them out in their own homes and see if you like them. We have been unbelievably lucky and A is now going to be looked after partly by a lovely lady just up the road from us and the rest of the time by an equally lovely friend of mine.

So far I am really enjoying going back to work. Its great to be able to do something I love that appears to fit in with family life. However as soon as you start back to work it is almost guaranteed that one of the kids will get sick. And sure enough on my third day of work A comes down with a bad case of the flu! So I had to phone up and explain that I couldn't come in. Not a great start but luckily they seemed to understand. Hopefully this coming week will run a bit more smoothly.