Episode 03: Rachel

In this episode, I interview Rachel, one of my school mums who is working, studying and raising 3 kids. Features scheduling failures and a dog!

The Lowdown

– Family of 5

– 2 Working Parents

– 1 part-time/casual work (relief teaching) and studying

– 1 part-time work

– 11 year old

– 8 year old (special needs)

– 7 year old

  

4:38 Sleep

5:08 Who are the people in your family? Who does what when?

7:06 Parenting super powers

7:29 Doing lots of things at a time

9:01 2 different schools

9:25 Calming influence

10:02 Picking up each others slack

10:51 Relief teaching with school pick up and drop offs

11:05 OSHC (Out of school hours care)

11:47  Have you been able to choose your own path?

12:40 Feeling restricted in how much you can do

13:18 Both partners feeling restricted?

13:51 The extra load of a special needs family

14:28 2 part time workers

15:06 Pressure of being solely responsible

16:20 Men and retrenchment

16:58 American example of larger numbers of men losing manufacturing jobs and taking on child care

19:30 What works well?

19:54 Children taking on more responsibility

21:30 Downsides?

22:00 Individual time with each child

22:10 What else have you tried

22:58 Casual employment and childcare

23:47 Has it got easier (please say yes!)

24:24 As it gets easier you take more on – like study

24:48 What is the next step?

25:08  Fitting university placements around work

25:30 Won’t somebody think of the….dog?

26:03 Impact of university placements on husbands work load

26:54 Supportive work environments?

27:04 Relief teaching = many different work environments, no single person to negotiate with

28:58  Funny or disastrous moments?

28:40 University Placement + Relief teaching fail

30:12  Is this what you thought family would look like? – NO!

31:24 Not having a job when you start a family

33:12 Flip side – having a job that you have to go back to

35:02 Any advice?

Let me know what you thought of this episode!

Leave a comment below, leave a review on iTunes or Stitcher, contact me via Facebook, Twitter or email.
Or even better join the Codfish Squad and talk to me there.