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To charge ap for *another* ruined item of clothing and trashed iron or not?

158 replies

kittywise · 04/03/2009 10:18

Ok, I've had my AP since Dec. We've had ups and downs and some of you might remember my posts on the subject!
Against all odds it has worked out pretty ok.
She is very dippy and has no common sense but has learned from her many mistakes and she plays really well with the younger children.
She has to leave in April to go on another language course.

Now my dilema is that she has managed to spoil a number of items of clothing by putting them in the tumble drier when she was told again and again that they shouldn't go in. Items like jumpers, fleeces and tracksuit bottoms. The first couple of times I patiently explained and then started to get cross. She actiully said to me that she would have been crosser than me in the same situation!!

Anyway yesterday she comes to me saying the the hot iron must have fallen into the basket underneath the ironing board which contains pile of clothes waiting to be ironed.
She says she hadn't noticed that it had fallen. She had turned it off and gone upstairs ( how can you not notice that the iron is no longer on the ironing board?)

Consequently the iron has ruined 2 items of clothing, I'm amazed that it was only 2, one expensive gap fleece, and of course the iron is covered in burnt plastic and is now unusable. Not to mention the potential dire consequences of burning clothes.
There is a huge tank of heating oil in the basement where all the laundry stuff is. I can't begin to contemplate what would have happened to us if a fire had started down there

Now I am pissed off, it was so so careless and dangerous of her and I am faced with replacing yet more clothing.

I want to ask her to contribute towards the cost of a new fleece and say that next time I will ask her to pay the full amount for any items that need replacing because she has shrunk, burnt etc them.

What do you think? What would you do in this circ?

Ta

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herbietea · 06/03/2009 08:45

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SnowlightMcKenzie · 06/03/2009 08:37

Perhaps she means she is responsible for ensuring it is done?

Kittywise what have you decided?

herbietea · 06/03/2009 08:33

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kittywise · 06/03/2009 06:43

it makes no difference to the thrust of the statement though.

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herbietea · 05/03/2009 23:30

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kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:28

anyways must go off to bed

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kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:27

herbietea , I should have explained that I pay her to help with this so that I can spend more time with my kids. Sometimes I do laundry and she plays, sometimes it is the other way round.

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kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:25

snowlight, no the money hasn't yet, I pay at the weekend .

If it were just a one off or even a 5 off I wouldn't be considering it.

Right then I won't deduct but will explain that I can't keep on replacing clothes and I want her to take more care and will ask for a contribution if it happens again.

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herbietea · 05/03/2009 23:23

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ninedragons · 05/03/2009 23:18

Annoying as it is, I don't think you can dock her pay for a genuine mistake.

A former colleague of mine in Hong Kong had a VERY expensive Tang Dynasty pottery horse. Its tail had broken off, and she'd been meaning to take it to a professional restorer. She got home one day and found her Filipina maid grinning and very pleased with herself because she'd fixed the tail by supergluing it back on.

That was thousands of pounds worth of damage, but it didn't occur to her to dock the woman's wages for a perfectly honest mistake.

herbietea · 05/03/2009 23:17

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Pannacotta · 05/03/2009 23:16

Like your suggestions snowlight esp the babysitting...

SnowlightMcKenzie · 05/03/2009 23:13

I wouldn't class ironing as light housework tbh, but that is just me and because I hate it beyond words and wouldn't give it to my worst enemy.

I agree with the power thing. Again - poor girl.

Kitty I can understand your frustration, I really can, - perhaps you can suggest she cooks you all a meal by way of an apology, or babysit one night but don't dictate.

kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:12

That's right, it's great to be able to afford to have help in the home. I'm so lucky and glad I don't have to do all the housework, lucky me.

As I said typos.

chipping doesn't read posts properly and extrapolates

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kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:10

Thanks for the though ninedragons
i hope that I have explained so that she understands. I only really use on setting for cottons so we leave it at that.

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Tiramissu · 05/03/2009 23:09

lol ChippingIn
she prob meant 'i give all the instuctions/shouting about laudry, ironing etc '
Are you illiterate

mrsturnip · 05/03/2009 23:09

Don't you have insurance? I have insurance for the girls who work with ds1.

ninedragons · 05/03/2009 23:08

Are you sure she knows how to use the drier properly? Speaking English may not necessarily mean she reads English very well. When we lived in China the appliances in our flat (obviously) were all labelled in Chinese. DH reads Chinese, I don't, so whenever I had to do anything but a standard wash I'd have to ask him to set the machine. Maybe stickers marking the right settings would help her?

In rural SE Asia, people dry their clothes by pulling the fridge out from the wall and putting the clothes horse against the coils on the back, because they're the warmest thing in a house without radiators. Unless she comes from a middle-class Bangkok family, she may be completely flummoxed by this tumble drier contraption you have.

kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:07

chipping, just furiously typed words, not an inability to read and comprehend.

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kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:05

ha ha chippingin I do do all of those things!
She is not the only one. She couldn't possible manage all the laundry by herself, that's ridiculous. I pay her to do some of it.
You learn to read posts properly instead of inventing things.

I do the laundry dp doesn't. I think it's quite traditional for women to get help with the housework.

No points for you there chippingin, try harder.

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Pannacotta · 05/03/2009 23:05

That sounds fairer kitty, that way she knows what to expect if she cocks up again, think waht ingles did worked well.

Still not sure I woudl trust her with an iron again...

kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:03

ingles I think that is for nannies. The same stipulation is not for ap's. You agree with them what housework is to be done. Usually it is light housework as is the case here.
Nannies are employed to do things with and for the children.

I shall have to think about the charging now

Perhaps I will say that I will not charge this time BUT if it happens again I will.

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ChippingIn · 05/03/2009 23:01

Tiramissu - just for you -

By kittywise on Wed 04-Mar-09 13:47:10
I do everything that is tradtionally the female role.
I do all laundry, cleaning, ironing, cooking etc

KW am illiterate - try reading some of your own posts. Anyway, just out of idle curiosity, why do you ask?? If it's because of our cross posts 22.55 and 22.57 - then really PMSL, get over yourself.

ingles2 · 05/03/2009 23:00

I wouldn't charge her for a fleece kitty that seems a bit petty. BTW AP's should only do dc's ironing you know?.
She would be getting a warning for the iron incident though.
I have charged an AP for a tyre in the past. She had a Sat night job working in a pub and managed to burst a tyre 2 weeks on the trot driving over the same pothole. I warned her if it happened again she'd have to pay and sure enough that Sat night she punctured the tyre for the 3 time. She had to pay and wasn't happy, but didn't do it again.

kittywise · 05/03/2009 23:00

No she said she bundled the clothes in without checking whether items shouldn't go in there.

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