Natasha Kaplinsky Takes £300,000 Pay Cut To Spend More Time With Her Son

Natasha Kaplinsky Takes £300,000 Pay Cut To Spend More Time With Her Son

TV newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky has reportedly decided she wants to spend more time with her eight-month-old baby Arlo.

According to Hello magazine, she's taking a 30% cut of her £1 million salary so she can hang out with her sprog.

She's quitting the 7pm slot on Five News so she can be at home to put Arlo to bed every night.

Kaplinsky went back to work part-time four months after her son was born, covering just the 5pm bulletin, and has now decided to make this arrangement permanent.

Seeing as she became Britain's highest-paid newsreader when she moved from the BBC to Channel Five last year, I think she can probably afford to take a pay cut.

A "source" told Hello: "She knows that she will not keep her big salary, and she is not worried about that. It's about getting the right work-life balance."

But it's not always so easy for the rest of us.

With a salary of £700,000 for her part-time job, Kaplinsky doesn't have to worry about paying the mortgage and childminder.

Her husband Justin Bower is an investment banker so I assume she probably doesn't even have to work at all.

But if your salary is closer to the average £24,000 then affording children at all can be difficult.

For many people going back to work part-time isn't an option because their employer won't allow it anyway.

They're supposed to properly "consider" it but they don't have to let you work part-time if they can come up with a good enough excuse.

Even if you can work part-time, then you have to figure out whether it's actually worth it.

Childcare costs upwards of £150 a week which is a large chunk out of an average salary.

It has also been suggested that children who spend long hours in daycare are more likely to be aggressive and suffer longer term problems.

So what with the cost and the guilt, is it worth going back to work at all?

But then many families have become dependent on two incomes. It's a tricky problem.

I'd like to hear how you have solved it! Did you go back to work part-time, or full-time, when your children were small and how did you cope?

Source: Hello magazine

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