I have a suspicion I may be this time...

[SueBaroo]

HV brings round a lady from Sure Start, ostensibly because of my various health issues and 3 children under 5. She's perfectly nice and all that, but she was the most patronizing individual ever.

I mentioned, conversationally, that we might go to one of the groups they put on, and said something waffly about the structure of the week, and she then told me that one of the things we could do is sit down together and "write out what we call a 'schedule' for you all, it's just like a routine, but over the whole week".

I was a bit really, and just about resisted the temptation to bounce up and down and ask exitedly if we could use bwight pwetty colours.

I'm on my period and ridiculously over-sensitive, so I'm quite willing to accept that I might be being unreasonable here. But I do still think she was desparately patronizing, and I'm not really sure how well the relationship is going to work if she persists on treating me like I'm 7 and need every word explained to me.

Yes She could offer to draw her a handy schedule re how best to fit prayer meetings around her "job" and into her week, whilst juggling hounding people on doorsteps and planning for armmegeddon. And a spreadsheet with suggested amount of earnings to be given to the cause.

Generous to a fault!

pmsl at fio

Poor JW's, lets not give them another kicking, they've had quite a few negative threads recently.

But, by all means, let us pat the heads of the patronizing-support-worker-cabal. Grr. IABU to still be irked about it, I should have just laughed at her and got over it.

But I shall be a little more confident next time I see her that she was being... over-zealous, shall we say?

lol at this thread.

Seriously if someone suggested my writing a schedule for my own life I think I would like to kill them. I had a lot of wonderfully patronising behaviour when dd was little, as i was a very young, single, working mother. They thought I was the scourge of the earth, and were probably convinced I was putting vodka in dd's bottle and feeding her doritos at 3 months or something. They were so bossy and said I had to go and get her weighed/join the new mothers club at the health visitors clinic, so they 'know how baby was getting on, dear, you know you need more support than most mothers'

Never went again, hid red book, that kind of thing. Now have a morbid fear of interfering HCPs.

Tell her you thought it was such a fantastic idea you drew up a schedule - which unfortunately doesn't include any slots for visits from patronising support workers such as herself.

In fact, unless they are going to come up with real support such as cold hard cash or babysitting so you can go to the pub, I wouldn't bother with HVs and their like at all.

SueBaroo, am SO relieved you aren't a JW but of course as a fundy Christian, I probably managed to offend you with my apology anyway (the thoughtless use of "God") Sorry if that's the case!. My ability to put my foot in my mouth never ceases to amaze me (or DH).

pmsl at procrastinating parent

chocolatedot, please don't stress - if I was offended by that kind of innocuous ejaculation, I wouldn't be on MN. I mean, I even use words like ejaculation in casual conversation

It's JC's name used as a swear word that makes me twitch a bit. A generic 'oh my god' isn't really an issue.

Don't think YANBU, however, it might be worth keeping in mind , that sure start people often deal with families that find normal life a bit harder, and hence may well need help with that sort of thing, iykwim

Bugger, Sue, you picked yourself up on amusing use of word "ejaculation" thereby preventing me from doing so..

3andnomore, yes, that's why I put this here actually, and I was quite prepared for an avalanche of YABU, really, because I suppose it's what she's trained to do.

I don't know, maybe it's just my pride being hurt that she thought I wouldn't know what 'schedule' meant.

I was stalked by SureStart for years and have only now managed to shake them off. I'm utterly convinced that it was because I was just about the only person who didn't slam the door in their face. I even went on a £1 coach trip to Margate with them once (that's £1 all in for me AND the 3 DC's). Possibly one of the most surreal experiences of my life.

Sounds as though she's a bit rubbish Sue. Let's hope she proves her worth in other ways (is she going to drive you to the shops like Boco's one was supposed to?)

I once had a driving instructor. I will call him Phil, for that was his name. On our first outing for him to assess my driving (I'd already been learning for about six months), he stopped the car and said brightly: 'Well, I'm really, really impressed that you have stuck at it, because you're obviously not a natural.'

As my dad pointed out later, I should have said: 'And I'm really impressed that you've stuck with this driving instructor lark, 'cos you're obviously pretty terrible at it.'