If you are going back to work part time would you expect your partner to contribute more to bills etc?

I definitely believe in what you’re saying, me and my partner are going to be doing the same once I go back to work x

I’m going to offer a different perspective… I used to manage a team of 25 guys aged between 40-70(ish). Many were fathers with some kids young, some older and flown the nest. Many of the guys spoke open to me and each other about their resentment of their partner not being equal financially in order to step back from work to raise kids. Some of them said it caused the breakdown of their marriages. They couldn’t see how raising kids contributed to household income and the pressure of them being majority earners amounted to a huge weight of pressure on them, that many struggled with. Some in silence and some not, where it caused constant unrest and arguments.

My suggestion is to be abundantly clear about how much unpaid labour goes into raising a child and that it’s about workload towards a happy household aside from money. And keep reiterating that over the years as they pass…don’t let that resentment build or the silent pressure get to your man.

thanks that’s really helpful!

My situation is a little similar. Before our son, we paid equal. Now I’m back at work, he pays 60% and I pay 40%. But we worked that out through how much we earn.
But for me to work, my son has to go into childcare. As my partner is in a 4 in 4 off job. But if I were to work it round his job and have less time in childcare, I’d definitely ask to pay less as the extra money would be needed to raise and let my son explore. I wouldn’t pay more to bills if it meant that we would have to stay in all the time

The way we've always gone about it as my partner earns twice as much as me yearly is we pay the same percentage towards bills so we know say 50% of each person's wages goes in to communal bills then the remainder is used to pay personal bills (phones transport to work etc) and for fun money for each of us and it worked perfectly. I never felt I was giving away too much of my money while he was left with loads every month and If I'd had a bad month with being off sick pregnancy wise etc then he would happily help me out. When I went on maternity I was bringing home less than half of my monthly wages so he stepped up and covered the rest and made sure I still always had at least £100 to myself for the month to do whatever I wanted with and if I ever needed anything or wanted anything he happily helped me out if I'd run out of money. I'll be returning to work likely next year in the summer (pregnant back to back) and going back to a percentage based split. So yeah id expect him to step up on bills.

We contribute towards our joint account in proportion to how much we’re earning at any given time

We don't split anything we just combine our money and all bills get paid from there. We give ourselves some fun money in our personal accounts to spend or save as we wish. We get the same amount of fun money despite a difference in salaries. Works for us!

When we were both working full time we did the same as Yazmyn, we each put 60% of our earnings into our joint account to cover bills and household expenses.

Since having our daughter it’s been much more of just moving money around to wherever it’s needed. This has inevitably led to my husband paying a higher percentage, but that’s just what has to happen and he’s very happy to do that.

Things have shifted again as he was made redundant at Christmas, just as I was returning to work part time and he’s now career changing. That’s meant our salaries are practically the same even though he’s full time, but we just muck in and get things paid, it’s basically all joint money now.

We put equal amount into a joint account before baby. We now switched to keeping a set amount for ourselves (200-300) and the rest goes into joint. Including bonuses etc. it's our family and our money, if one day I earn double what he does, I will still put majority of my earnings into joint account

Depending on what you’re both earn? If your partner earns more they should contribute more, never 50/50 unless you’re both on same wages

We split our bills based on proportion that we earn. For example if I earn 40k and he earns 60k I will pay 40% and he pays 60%.

So if your salary is lower because you’re part time then my opinion is it should be more proportioned, because you’re likely saving quite a lot on childcare by having the days off too 🙂

But everyone’s circumstances are different so I hope you figure it out x

These men need to pay 100% of the bills.💯