How to win friends and influence people - the Officer's Wife way

[Saltire]

I got asked if I would run a creche in the Officer's Mess. I was aksed if I would do 12noon till 3.30pm.

The wives all pay £3.00.
that's £3.00 for the whole 3.5 hours, regardless of how many children they have. On the day in question there will be 7 children (4 women), ranging from babies to 10 year olds.
So they wanted to pay me £12 to look after 7 children for 3 1/2 hours.I said no that it was slave labour and I wasn't doing it, and that if they wanted me to do it I would take £5 per family, per hour!
Needless to say they weren't happy. I was told
"You do know don't you that my DH is a Flt lt with 10 years experience in the RAF, and he won't tolerate this. I am aware that your DH is only a Sgt, and I think you should be aware of it too and should know your place"

Huh? Fuck the creche I say

Nice surely it doesnt matter what rank your husband is its still illegal as under min wage. Her husbands power has gone to her head. Even £5 an hour per family is bloody generous tbh. Wish I could get childcare this cheap.
Well done for standing up for yourself.

I based the £5 an hour on approx childmidning rates for 2 children around here

Oh dear, the woman's delusional.

I can only imagine what her dh thinks of her.

When's your/her next posting?

Oh bless her. She's clearly deluded.

Fuck it indeed!

Doesn't paint a very good picture of officers' wives does it?
G;ad you told her where to go.

Why do they need a creche running anyway?
Similar thing when I used to babysit and people would bring their kids over for me to look after for no extra money whilst looking after the original kids. The families just split my bill and got away with it. Cheeky.

Just tell her to feck off. You, just like her, are a civilian, so neither of your husband's rack has got fuck all to do with it. What's going to happen, will the CO give you extra duties if you don't do it?! Perhaps her husband would like to run the creche?!

This is exactly the sort of thing that makes me hate forces life. Some people are just twats, and unfortunately, they get everywhere.

{shock}

Some people have no clue do they?!

I'm a RAF officer's wife and would never DREAM of saying/behvaing like that. We're not all like that honest.

Tell her from me, wife of a Squadron Leader with 10yrs RAF experiece, that she should wind her neck in

Hi Saltire, told my SIL, who is a Wing Commanders Wife with 31 years RAF time, she was appalled, she is at Scampton, and asks if you are there?

Good Lord! Who does the woman think she is? Let her do her own damn babysitting!

Good for you for saying 'no' - that's disgraceful!
Whenever people ask me what rank DH is or what regiment he's in I just plead ignorance. I am not Mrs Cpl Chulita regardless of what PILs write on my birthday card

Don't do it. I am sure this ghastly womans husband would be appalled if he learned of her rudeness to you.

I am shocked! What an absolute arse she is.

As wife of the equivalent of a Group Captain, I would love to put the deluded lady in her place. But I am not like that. Often.

Actually, I would. That is just shocking.

Actually you should say to her 'If your dh has 10 years experience in the RAF and is still only a Flight Lt he isn't doing very well, is he?'

and what does the dear lady do herself other than wear her DH's stripes and make a prat of herself? when I was a Lt, the self importance of some wives did irritate me, and I vowed I would never ever wear DH's stripes.

I hope she gets put in her place. Do give us an update Saltaire.

exactly hf

my dh is sqn ldr (and only 8 years experience, natch!), it matters not a jot to me and I would NEVER look down on anyone

she's a cheeky boot - who the hell does she think SHE is? does her ever-so-experienced

I can't believe anyone spoke to you like that, tbh.

Am horrified for you

It is just so rude to speak to anyone like that.

Tell her you do know your place and it's not cloud cuckoo land which is where she obviously is!

Actually I feel quite incensed by this.

Saltire I really would ask your dh to speak to the RSM (or equivalent) who can speak to the CO who can speak to her husband.

Thank you for the huge over generalisation - I think you'll find very few Officers' wives think/act like that and many would be appalled as has been shown here.

me thinks i am glad we aren't entitled to MQ after reading this.

what a bizarre set up in the first place - surely it's either a free creche for families paid for by the mess (at an appropriate flat rate for the supervisors) or they should be charging families a more realistic amount...

i think she's got the wrong end of the stick - that can't be the deal, surely? (and it goes without saying that she's clearly a loon.)

who on earth asked you to provide a creche on this basis? are they providing a creche for you at the next wo/sgt's mess lunch? at the same rates, clearly?

nutter.

(lol at all the pointscoring. even i was a sqn ldr before the 10 yr point...)

although..... whilst at cranwell i was informed that my secondary duty was babysitting rep. which essentially meant that i had to provide babysitters for every ds family for every function. usually me. no-one volunteers for this rubbish.

just decline the offer of running the creche and move on.

I'd ask her when she joined up then; and also when she became your boss.

If I were her, I'd be making sure you got as much as possible for doing it, so you wanted to make a regular commitment, and making sure there was some sort of recompense for you on the days they didn't need the creche. Stupid and short sighted to do otherwise.

Just say no and smile sweetly. Tell her also from me to wind her neck in (wife of RN Commander with 31 years in).