April 2007 - new thread for GMM

[StealthPolarBear]

Hello!

I know what you mean - just want to know one way or another!
Just got your email Luce - very cute pictures

Sorry about crap night, Eddas, but yey to job situation - I am stressing here too - Neeeeeeeeed to go back to work in Jan, but have no idea what job to apply for or how to arange childcare .... any suggstions? Tearing my hair out here - v. of all of you who have jobs to go back to!

Right best have shower .....

Morning all. Just running in as we are heading out for the day. Not looking forward to it tbh, as B and our friends dd who is 2, always end up fighting and it gets stressful. B is v protective over K and my friends dd likes to "help" which is v sweet, but can be a pain!!! The men are going biking whilst us ladies are left to watch the battles commence!

CD, what happened with your job in the baby shop then?

Runny, how did you get on with your boss?

Eddas, hope you get a good night tonight. Tyxilix night is fab stuff (you probably have it already) but just in case you haven't iyswim!

IDOC, enjoy the charity thing.

I remember Basingstoke being talked about and that would be fab. I used to work there too so know it reasonably well. The only issue is whether it is too far for CD??

Right, better run. Apologies for not many mentions.

See y'all later. x

luce made me think of wombles to if it were me taking the walk i'd be wobbling like one

CD, it's so hard re work isn't it. I was stressing so much(just hope boss will be ok with my plan) childcare is v expensive so my other otpions were to work once dh home but then that would be stressful as we'd never see each other and we would both be working 24/7 pretty much. With childcare I looked into a childminder and day nursery. Both too expensive for me with 2 wiped out my wages really so would've been pointless. Would a Tesco type job suit? how many hours would you need to do? work all day saturday?

Bloomin kids get in the way don't they Gotta love em though

liath, once the sleeping through starts, it only gets better, yeah!
re jobs, I'm going back to temping. Luckily we can get tax credits for childcare, which makes a massive difference.

I think a nursery is a good option for us. Have tried childminder but they need more flexibility than a nursery does (ie, I only have Aden next Friday, so can you keep him for the day, so I can have the day off?..)

Also, look at how many pick up and drop offs your child will be dragged along to!

Humph - I don't know - Yes am considering a supermarket type job ...... wouldn't want to work at the weekends though cos that is family time (I know, I can't have my cake and eat it....) Don't really want to work too many evenings as I'd like to see DH occasionally, am completely knackered as it is & have lots of other committments (church, NCT etc....) Mmmmmmmm ...... SOL, my job at the baby shop is only one afternoon a week (not even that atm ) - they can't offer me any more hours and they pay a pittance anyway!

I have considered Child Minding, Luce; but, well ... fact is ..... I don't really like children.

Bollocks!

Remind me again why I bothered to go to Uni!!?

CD, something from home, those leaftlet drop type do das, IYSWIM! probably pay a pitance though? I was having the exact dilema (still will be if work say no to the hours i'd like) it's so hard. don't want to depress you any more but in jan shops are generally awash with staff due to taking on xmas extras. Could you start looking now? I'm going to if my boss says no because they are already advertising for xmas people everywhere.

I'm wanting it to be monday now again! grrrrrrrrrrrr the waiting to ask is gonna drive me nuts few vodkas this evening should sort me out

oh and I have postponed my dad til 27th oct(the next date he can make as he works 2 sats then has 2 off) yay! no polite convos with step mother and getting p off with her dippy comments!

My 2 are asleep and dh at footie so i'm by myself, off to do something constructive for a bit, unless i get caught up on here

Back from walk, lovely day here and the Common is really fab (but didn't see any Wombles ).

Ah yes, the good old work-life / childcare / money balance thing. Nightmare, and the more you think about it, the worse it seems. I guess that is one of the advantages of having a bigger gap between DCs (5yrs here)as it means I only have to pay one lot of childcare when I go back to work as Em is at school. Although I do have to pay for after-school club for Em 3 days a week (flippin' £13 for 3 hours after school 'care'). It all adds up.

CD - LOL at you saying you don't like children! I assume you mean other people's children?.

OK am going to try to start a thread about the SE meet up. This could take me a while so don't hold your breath.

Have done it (I think).

SE meet up ladies see here

Hi all,

I'm fretting about childcare too, I'll be lucky to find something that takes half my take home pay for D, how those of you with more than one and/or lower wages and household incomes manage I don't know.

CD, what's your typing speed like? Don't know if you could get any typing/proofreading/stuff that you could do at home. It's not that lucrative but if you could find such bits and pieces of work it might replace your wages from the baby shop. Or if there are any typing or virtual PA services that are successful enough that they could put a little work your way when they can't complete it all.

I don't know the practicalities but I know there are people on Mumsnet who get a little bit of money selling books for Usborne or something. And there are other things that are more flexible than going out to work jobs but reasonably legit, not total scams.

Baby modelling? We know your dds are gorgeous and photogenic...

I do Usborne if anyone is interested

I was only trying to be helpful - I didn't want to kill the thread

I tried childminding,and found it difficult to make money at it. People only ever seemed to want a few hours here and there. Those who want more usually move on once free nursry funding starts.
There are some big commerical outfits around here, but I think the standard of care can be quite low( I have seen with my own eyes)

My plan was to train as a legal sec, as it pays more, then I can afford to work part time.

Dh has a very low paid job, so we have to be creative. I find dog walking and cleaning pays well!

the other thing I hated about childminding was there was never a situation that seemed to suit mine. I'd end up compromising so much. My friend was luckier though, she got two children full time almost, and was able to make a decent living, for a while.

I much prefer going to work (it is much easier) and putting A in nursery, but I was lucky to find a very good one.

R will have to go into nursery much sooner than A, she will be about 8 months old. It breaks my heart, but has to be done. At least part time will mean I can spend some time with her an A.

mmk, I'm a legal secretary. Are the temp rates higher in Milton Keynes as well as in London?

oooggs, how do you find selling Usborne books - do you find that the money's worth the time involved?

Evening all

Hope you are all okay and Nutty has got over her porn thing

All fine here - drank too much wine last night with my curry and haven't felt great today so off to bed early.

Are we going to have a meet up for christmas or are you going to the London one???

Hello all, just a quick note cos on FIL's pc and takeaway arriving shortly.

Having an ok weekend . Will tell all details on my return

Hope you're all ok. Have had a quick read through but haven't remembered much.

Eddas - glad ds was ok.

Blimey, I think that's all I remembered!

mmk cleaning/ironing is a good idea, i think my friend who comes on here should do that(EAH) coz she loves cleaning/ironing, the nutter

I'm definately gonna try and get a self employed bookkeeping thing going if/when I go back to work so that, hopefully, in a year and a halfs time when dd goes to proper school, I can be more flexible and work around her. Then once ds at preschool, 2 years time scary thought then i should be able to fit it around th two of them

I am very tired now, think i'll be off to bed in a bit, where's that eyes propped open with matchsticks emoticon

meant to say earlier, sol, thanks for the tip re tyxilix night, will investigate when i'm next at a chemist. Fingers crossed dd seems to be getting a bit better

elkiedee - there is alot of money to be made through recruiting, you get a cut of all who work under you and then under them. My boss earns a lot and fits it all in around her family.

I don't I don't recruit, don't do many parties, I sell to friends and family and spend my 'earnings' on books which is why I do it. Dh works shifts (not that I go on about it ) so I am not very flexible. But I really enjoy what I do and maybe will step it up when dts are nursery - though then I will be back in 'real' work.

On a childcare front we have a fab onsite subsidised nursery, which is how I can afford to put all three in. Under £15 a day and hours between 7am - 6pm, breakfast at 8am, snack at 10am, two course lunch at 12pm, snack at 3pm all included and most importantly James loves it. It opened the week before I returned to work when James was 14 months so he has been there since it opened. They went above and beyond the call of duty when I kept getting rushed into hospital when pg with dts.

sorry to babble and no I haven't been drinking - for a change

Hi ladies

Quiet on here again today.

IDOC, have responded on the SE meet up thread.

We too are lucky that B is now at school so only have K's nursery fees to pay from December. I don't think I could carry on working otherwise as would be out of pocket.

Back from our day out, and it was pretty hellish. B was well behaved which was fab as was K, but friends dd was not on good form - not sharing, and in fact bit B on her hand quite badly .

To top it all off, B came off the trampoline in their garden really badly and cut her lip open. Horrific sight. Made worse by the fact that dh and 2 others were out in the garden but none of them were keeping an eye open. I know accidents can happen and you can't watch them 24/7, but ffs.

So, B after that was understandably a pita and we cut short our stay ( we only live 10 mins down the road thankfully!)

Hope you have all had good days. Off to bed now, as am shattered. xx

Wow, that's amazing re subsidised nursery - I expect I'll be paying £30 to £40 a day for D - £35 would actually be a little more than half my take home pay - ouch!

Hi all - logged in on ellies computer. She's out on her date and im on babysitting duties. Think she's feeling very guilty and kept offering to stay and cancel but if it means she gets herself a man and quits going on about all these strange men messaging her then its worth it I really dont mind, have my vodka and coke and thnk she'll be back fairly soon anyway.

She has a hamster in a cage on the windowsill behind me and i forgot and just freaked out for a second when i heard it thinking it must be a rat or something

Kids are havng great fun although lots of work all together. Party was fab. Cannot get over he size difference between J and D! Will have to take a pic to post before I go home. J is lush all squidgy and adorable, he's lovely for squeezing!

CD - I have also been scouring around for work. I've applied for job as dinner lady type person as dp can babysit and wont affect my bfing. But have also signed up for shed loads of mystery shopper and survey completing things. Its not much and its not exactly an income but when you're proper skint the extra 10/20 quid every now and then all helps. And the survey thing I do pays out when you get to £50 quid which I havent yet, would ptrob only happen nce or twice a year but still a cheque for £50 for very little effort is pretty nice. Good help for bdays or christmas.

Link for yougov surveys If you are interested and use this link to sign up I get credits I signed up through someone else's link off mumsnet when i joined.

When i get home i can post some links to a really good work from home site if youre interested, cant remember what its called now though!

Hi everyone

Had root canal Monday and not been the same since. Fell out with friend Tuesday, completely ridiculous and I am not losing any sleep over it (we were planning on camping this weekend and she invited us to her DDs birthday party, I asked if we could let her know at the beginning of the week and she went off on one "that her PFB was not a 2nd choice and what sort of friend was I?"), resulting in me telling her never to contact me again as I have never met a grown adult so spiteful and nasty since I left school!

Then got hit by laryngitis and not been able to speak the rest of the week! Went out Friday and sounded like an adult chat line operator and completely knackered yesterday but took the kids on a bike ride to the orchard to pick apples. So, making apple cake and apple pie today and the kids have a party later.

Octo, won't be doing the London meet up but would do a local one. I am going away on 15th Dec though and so would have to be early in Dec for me. I have got an Invitation book with discounts at restaurants in Bristol and Bath, Jongleurs and Jesters

WCL - sounds like you've had a really shite week. I'm sure your friend will realise the error of her ways (if you can be arsed to speak to her again ).

DH and I are staying in Bath for a couple of nights at the end of November. We always come down that way before Christmas to kick-start our Christmas shopping. Plus we absolutely love Bath (plus it gives us a couple of nights on our own!!!!). We'll be going to the Christmas market, we must be crazy as I know Bath is absolutely heaving that weekend. Did it last year with my bump and it was pretty knackering, but still lovely! Fab walking into the market next to the Abbey and listening to carol singers and brass bands playing Christmas music...makes me all tingly IYKWIM! Would love to go the the spa this time, need to look ino all that to see if I need to book it.

Well off to Mum's today for a roast lunch. DH working again, so up to me to entertain the girls again. Sigh.