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

please don't think we are all like that. 5 pounds per hpur is great and a lot cheaper than a babysitter. can i pay you 5 pounds an hour?(only joking would be happy to pay more!)

good for you saying no as a fellow childminder (you were, or are right?) it's just not worth it lol!

As a wife of an ex-ranker now officer I am even more scum than anyone ROFL fit right in I do not!

My Dad was SD (RN parlance for promoted to an Officer from the ranks), and I hope no-one ever thought of my Mum as scum. That's horrid, and I hope your dh isn't in the RN.

Jesus, she must be from the previous century. Early in the previous century, when women were still Mrs. Doctor, Mrs. Lawyer etc.

Good for you for saying no so eloquently.

In the army the LE officers are definetly seen as 'different' to the 'real' officers.

The wives I know found it very very hard going from being the top of the tree as the WO1's wife to being right at the bottom of the officer pile and not seen as really fitting in

There is offen a lot of bitchy behaviour from both camps TBH, the soldiers wives totally blank them as soon as their DH's become officers and the officers wives don't want them to join in. One of my best friends said it was one of her worst ever times the day her DH made LE Captain as overnight all her previous friends started to ignore her or bitch about her!

Then again at DH's last posting the wives club pretty much excluded all officers wives as we were 'boring' and likely to snitch on their behaviour to our DH's who would then apparently 'punish' their DH's Yes because don't you know that DH totally lives for dragging Corporal Bloggs into his office to tell him off for his wife having too many vodka shots at the weekend.....

You see, Navy wives for the most part aren't like that. We're all in the same boat when they go to sea and get on with it.

However, one woman I worked for was the most appalling snob (her husband was a chef in the RM); I just said my dh was in the RN, no comment about his rank. A temp joined the team, and this woman was all over her because her boyfriend was a Naval Officer, (I think he was a mid or a sub, fresh from BRNC), and she said, 'oh Scary's husband is in the RN too, what rank is he?' and she sneered, expecting me to say a PO. She nearly snorted her coffee down her nose when I pointed out he outranked both her dh and the temps boyfriend by several miles (he was a LT-Cdr at the time). She never talked to me again after that. No loss. I'll talk to anyone though.

Exactly, I just don't understand people who live for their husband's rank....

That's easy - no lives/intellectual stimulus, therefore live through their dhs.

It's actually quite interesting that dh and I have a lot of good friends who are LE officers. Maybe we are more 'normal' than some officers and their wives!

She needs to remember she's a civvy, with no rank whatsoever.

Like that story I heard about a lady in Garrison town Tesco, when a Corporal in uniform out shopping picked up the last packet of ham on the shelf, she said:
"that's my ham"
He said "but I have it in my hand"
She retorted "but my husband is a Lt Col so I should get the ham!"

Good for you, saltire!

Why should her DH care?!

Well if it's any consolation I'm an RAF Officer and my wife's lovely! Honest!

Why do some people insist on putting 'as the wife of a .......'? Relevance please?

That's because if Saltire says anything to the woman in question, she can say she has been talking with other Officer's wives who think the behaviour and comments unacceptable. It's the only way some get the point.