I’m a single mum – one change has transformed my life

Standing in the back garden, I take a sip of my hot coffee and then a deep breath of the cold morning air. I feel calm, content. 

That morning had started like any other with me dropping my son off at school. But because we’d managed to do his reading and lay out his uniform before bed, there’d been no mad rush. 

So now I had time to enjoy a moment’s peace before signing on for work. 

As any single parent will tell you, moments like these can be hard to come by, especially when you work full time, too. 

But thanks to the flexibility of my job at Women’s Budget Group (WBG) and its shorter working week policy, I’m finding these moments have not just become more common, but practically routine 

And it’s got me thinking: shouldn’t a 30-hour working week be standard practice for all? 

Until last year, my husband and I had managed just as well as any other two-parent household at juggling a 4-year-old and two careers. But then, in late September, our marriage ended. 

While it was the right decision, it was a rocky first few months as my household bills doubled overnight and I wondered how I was going to be able to emotionally and financially support myself and my son in this new reality. 

Gradually though, things did get easier. We found a good balance of co-parenting teamwork and, thanks to the flexibility of my job – I was already working from home on a 36 hour contract by then  – we were doing okay. 

Then, in May,  my ex-husband was diagnosed with cancer. The news shattered me. 

Our romantic relationship may have been over but he’d always be my partner in the sense of raising our child. And the mere prospect of having to raise our child alone, as opposed to co-parenting, was a very different and scary one.

Thankfully it was treatable, but it would involve a long and gruelling treatment regimen for him, and for me necessitated long stretches of single parenting just as my son was reaching school age. 

Suddenly I found myself stuck at an impasse. I needed both more time and more money.

Sure, I could go up to a 40-hour work week to increase my earnings, but then I’d be sacrificing valuable time that I needed to have to be there for my son. And with no family nearby, I had no support network to lean on. 

Luckily, that’s when my workplace announced they would be adopting a shorter working week – meaning I only had to do a 30 hour week, working whatever hours worked best for me and all while getting a pay bump to a full-time salary.

Suffice to say that, for me, it couldn’t have come at a better time. 

It took a lot of work and preparation from the staff responsible for implementing it, and at least a small leap of faith from the board. But in January my shorter working week began.

Almost immediately, the switch in my hours made the impossible seem more possible. I no longer had to choose between being able to provide for my son financially and being physically present for him.

I could be there to pick him up from school and go to the park for a bit afterwards without worrying about work. All because I could choose how to spread my work around my schedule.

Typically that meant I chose to work while he was at school but take mornings and afternoons off so I was free to be with him. On days when he saw his dad though, I’d work for longer and it all balanced out.

Doing this also  opened up small spaces for me to breathe between the work of employment and the work of parenting. Suddenly I had time for hot cups of coffee or to read a book before bed. 

Mostly, it has helped me to keep my head above water during a time I genuinely fear I might otherwise have gone under. 

The more I think about it, the more I wonder how I ever would have balanced trying to be at least base-level present as a parent alongside the need to earn enough money to support my son. 

The short answer is, I don’t think I would have been able to even with the flexible working that is practised at WBG as standard. 

It’s a beautiful little life now, but it does not feel revolutionary to have asked for it

While I’m tempted to hail the shorter working week as revolutionary, I feel there is a danger in doing so.

I worry that it perpetuates the notion that working slightly fewer hours in order to balance paid and unpaid labour in a way that doesn’t leave us poor, sick, and depressed, is somehow a Utopian, pie-in-the-sky idea.  

Have we really become so unimaginative as a society that this is truly our definition of Utopia?  

Of course, there are hurdles along the way to implementing a shorter working week across all sectors and occupations.

I accept that it’s more challenging in certain industries like hospitality and manufacturing which are reliant on people being physically present to provide a service or produce goods.

I understand that there’s an extra cost involved for businesses as they’ll need to hire more staff or up salaries of previously part-time employees. 

And let’s not forget that, more generally, societally we still conflate productivity with time spent behind a desk.

But none of these situations are impossible to overcome. 

WBG were aware of these and considered them when forming our policy recommendations, and, generally speaking, both us as staff and the organisation have reaped the rewards.

There’s been a new approach to productivity meaning things like long meetings have been cut back and we’ve started using AI to speed up administrative tasks. And thanks to the better work-life balance there’s been reduced staff sickness and overall better staff well-being.

My point is this: as a society we cannot keep writing off the shorter working week as impossible when individuals and families of all types continue to strain and crumble under the pressure of trying to do it all. 

What’s it going to take to finally stop for a second and admit that the world of work isn’t working for anyone, let alone people who are trying to juggle it alongside caring responsibilities?