Name your hours, ave £7ph, no experience necessary... sound good?

[Buckets]

Some bumwiping may be involved (but we mums can handle that eh?) Car not always essential but more you earn more if you have one.

I just wanted to share what I do in case anyone's looking for ideas - ideal for SAHMs reluctant to give up 9-5 time. I'm a part time community carer for a local agency, I work about 7hrs on a Sunday, DH has bonding time with the kids so childcare costs and I get around £40 a week pocket money. It's fab! Not something I ever imagined doing but I'm fairly unsqueamish and I love the job, it's great seeing the difference you can make to someone's life.

Work varies from checking someone's taken their medicine through to helping hoist a wheelchair user for pad change or stripwash. On your own for the easier ones or with another carer for anything involving moving a client - so sometimes you feel like you're your own boss and others you can have a laugh with a colleague.

Ongoing training provided which has been fascinating so far - I was earning within a week.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my good fortune as it's kept DH off my back too.

[Ripeberry]

Hi Buckets, yes it's great doing Homecare work, i've done it for the last 9 months but rencently gave up as my DH did not like me going out in the evenings, used to do 3 evenings 7pm until 11pm and Saturday 6.30am until 2pm.
But he was finding it difficult with the children aged 3yrs and 5yrs as they would play up when he had to put them to bed.
He also started to resent the fact that he had the kids most of EVERY saturday.
Anyway, as i said i gave it up and it was very upsetting as i met lots of lovely clients and my colleagues were very supportive but the company itself was not very good and clients and workers were moaning about management constantly.
I'll go back to Homecare again but maybe with a local authority and not Private or even work in a Care home.
In the meantime, i'm doing befriending work for Age Concern and trying to pick up little jobs here and there for xtra money like house cleaning.
Until both my DDs are at school full-time then i just can't see what i can do as work as DH just does not have the energy in the evenings to look after the girls as he is out of the house at 7am and not back until just before 7pm.
Just make sure your managers keep you well trained and have regular meetings, mine did not have a single meeting all the time i was with them so i did not know how i was doing.
AB

[marmadukescarlet]

RB, can you tell more about befriending? Is it voluntary? I'm not looking for an income, but want to 'adopt' some grandparents for my DC iyswim.

[Ripeberry]

Also Buckets, your profile is similar to mine and at least you can work when you want, i think my DH just wants me at home and to be a good little wifey!
AB

[marmadukescarlet]

I used to visit an elderly chap every monday on the way home from work (pre DC) and have a cuppa, chat and help him out with little jobs.

When I was still a student I used to just go during holidays, I 'met' him and his wife as a 15 yr old till assistant in my local supermarket.

They were a lovely couple and then she died, so I took to visiting reg.

[marmadukescarlet]

Gosh, I should finish what I mean to say before posting.

I didn't have any GPs so I liked visiting and hope my children will get the same benefit.

[Ripeberry]

Hi Marmaduke, crossed post, yes it's voluntuary, just get in touch with your local Age Concern branch and they'll bite your hand off!
They always need befrienders, they will help you with mileage costs, i think it's 40p a mile at the moment.
It's very rewarding, and sometimes you can be the only person they see all day.
A few years ago i did voluntuary gardening and at one point i was seing 3 different ladies a week but had to stop when i was 7 months pregnant....could not bend over anymore!
Give it a try, you'll be amazed how many lonely people there are out there!
AB

[marmadukescarlet]

Thank you I will.

[Buckets]

I just work 7am-2pm on Sundays (first call got cancelled this morning though so have had a semi-lie-in) which is great for us. DH takes the kids to the park if weather is nice or if raining I come home to huge amounts of paper fairies, cards and whatever crafty activity they've been up to.
My agency are lovely, monthly meetings, loads of training and always doubled up with another carer for anything difficult, even just if there's an unrelated male lodger who lives with the client.

[Ripeberry]

Buckets, i'm glad you've got a good agency.
Mine were just crap and dangerous.
They regularly let carers handle hoists by themselves, even though it is illegal, if anything happened that carer could go to prison!
I've had to deal with scary drunk relatives (in the evening), people leaving gas on, went into one house and had to ventilate it as the drunk son had left the taps on and gone upstairs to sleep off his binge drinking, leaving his mother downstairs, anything could have happened!
And the best of it, they used to send us out to clients up to 10.30pm at night BUT there was no-one to help us in case of a problem as they all logged off at 9pm!
Worst of it was, that the office would call you all the time, even on days off, to try and get you to come in and they would give you the work for the next week and then TOTALLY change it a few hours before and add for good measure a few new addresses so you had to find them at NIGHT!
The areas i worked in were quite rough and i was starting to get worried about my safety.
They are always recruiting...if anyone is thinking of doing this kind of work, don't go for the companies that seem to be recruiting a lot, as there must be something wrong with them...learnt my lesson the hard way.
Anyway, nice to be back with my DDs in the evening and being to have a lie-in on a Saturday!
AB