Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

LydiaJ

In the Telegraph:

Absent parents who lie about their incomes to avoid paying child maintenance will be targeted through their tax records and forced to pay more, under government plans.

This caught my eye because I've always wondered how Sue's ex gets away with paying her so little, since he seems reasonably well off from what she says about him. Any chance it might result in more money for you, Sue? Here's hoping, anyway.

Doozergirl

LydiaJ wrote: »

DD, who is 8, has been watching some CBBC show about driving. As I was driving her through the centre of town during this evening's rush hour, she held forth on the importance of not allowing myself to be distracted while driving, complete with demands that I look at her (admittedly while waiting at a red light) while she mimed the difference between looking down to reach for a drink and feeling for it without taking one's eyes of the road. There may be puerile arguments elsewhere on this board, but the NPT is a haven of maturity.

I'm days behind and sorry to hear the news. I have been thinking of you, just lacking web access. I hope your family weekend is comforting for you all. When my mum went, it definitely made me more grateful for the little big things like the love you have for those remaining.

My DD has been watching the same program. She's a nightmare and veers wildly from pointing out all the road signs and dictating them all to me, back to trying to get me to "pick a card, mummy!" and waving paint samples in my face, or putting on a strobe effect app on my phone when i'm driving down pitch black lanes. I wish she'd practice what she preaches!

lostinrates

Can you parents of distrations poit out they ARE the ditraction atm?

My littlest neice used to slip her seatbelt all the time. I went bit too far when I told her the police (innocently driving along three cars behind us) were coming for me.


It took me ages to feed and clean up everyone here today. I never knew how much hedgehog drank until this year. Its just as well its water not spirits.

JonnyBravo

lostinrates wrote: »

Its just as well its water not spirits.

Yeah that lack of opposable thumbs is still holding them back.

You could offer to open the bottle for them.:D

lostinrates

JonnyBravo wrote: »

Yeah that lack of opposable thumbs is still holding them back.

You could offer to open the bottle for them.:D

I've been amazed at hedgehogs i general. I had previously underestiated their athleti ability

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Can you parents of distrations poit out they ARE the ditraction atm?

My littlest neice used to slip her seatbelt all the time. I went bit too far when I told her the police (innocently driving along three cars behind us) were coming for me.

I have pointed it out, several times. She just carries on talking. :rotfl:

She was a terror for slipping her seatbelt when she was little. She learnt how to wriggle out of a 5 point child seat harness one night when I was driving from Gloucester to Cambridge with both kids and no other adult in the car. I think she was about 18-20 months old. She did it, and I put her back in. Half an hour later she did it again and I put her back in again. Then 10 minutes later, 5 minutes, 1 minute, then every 30 seconds, over and over. In the end I tied the two chest straps together with the lace out of one of my trainers, and that foiled her. When we arrived in Cambridge, I told my friend all about it, and the following day she helped me make an extra strap with a clickable fastening, to connect the two chest straps easily. DD hated it. Within a week all I had to do was threaten to do up "the special strap" and she'd stay put.

They're great about seatbelts now, of course. It's only recently that I've persuaded them that they don't need to tell me off if I don't put mine on until after I've finished reversing out of the parking space! It's just as well they're good about them, because they'd be dead otherwise.

I had a very odd conversation with a policeman just after "the accident" in which he thanked me (and me on behalf of LNE) for bringing them up to wear their seatbelts. I thought it was rather strange of him. It turned out another kid involved in one of the connected accidents had just died of injuries received when being thrown from the car. Traffic police feel grateful to parents who make kids belt up, because it means they don't have to deal with child deaths, which they hate. When it was put to me like that, I could see why he was thanking me.

lostinrates wrote: »

I've been amazed at hedgehogs i general. I had previously underestiated their athleti ability

I have similarly been amazed at the hamster. She escaped AGAIN yesterday. I am going to have to reorganise my kitchen cupboards to keep cereal on the upper level, I think.

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

this... not sure when fir went for an interview last, but competency based questions are all the rage now. when i interview people who haven't moved jobs for several years they are often very wrong-footed by being asked to provide examples of when they did things like "made a team operate more effectively" or some such other nonsense.

it is very difficult to pursuade HR to invite someone back for a second interview if they fail the competency based questions, even if they have a better CV than everyone else who has applied. at one point last year i was on the point of killing one of them when they were saying we couldn't put the best qualified person i've interviewed through to the next round, because he'd given a bit of a dodgy answer to a question around "working with stakeholders".

it is pretty frustrating having to interview lawyers with 10 years PQE on this basis...

I've got a scarily large and great CV .... and I spectacularly crash and burn in interview with competency based SURPRISE!!!! questions.

Also, many questions are simply not relevant. "What is your management style?" when it's not a management position and I've not been a manager of people, but projects.

PasturesNew

chewmylegoff wrote: »

... if he's been headhunted (properly, not just some !!!!py recruitment consultant getting him to apply for every job on his books) ...

In about 1995 I had a little side job working for a headhunter - and I saw their methods. She employed a local mum, in a deepest rural village, to come round and literally phone through a big book.

e.g. the recruiting was for "Partner of Big Law Firm in Leeds", with salaries of £250k. All the local mum had to do was open the big industry book at the front and skim through to find which legal firms dealt with that area of the law, look up the name of their current senior staff, then cold call them and ask "would you be interested in a partnership in a big town up north?" If they said yes she asked them to send in their CV. Once she had "enough" yes' it was job done unless those who sent in a CV weren't up to being short-listed.

The headhunter was getting paid 1/3rd of fees up front, full expenses (she'd interview in the Savoy with canapes/champagne bills run up), then 1/3rd of fee at short-list stage and 1/3rd of fees at appointment.

Mostly, everybody on a shortlist's last names will start with the letters A-H.

Malcolm.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I've got a scarily large and great CV .... and I spectacularly crash and burn in interview with competency based SURPRISE!!!! questions.

Also, many questions are simply not relevant. "What is your management style?" when it's not a management position and I've not been a manager of people, but projects.

Take every question they ask to mean sell yourself to me. i.e. tell them what you can offer them - rather than literally answer the question or overly analyse why they're asking it.

So something like, "I like to foster a good team spirit, I also giving people the space and responsibilities to develop. I'm happy to speak to people if needs arise".

I wouldn't go into specifics unless they ask for examples.

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I miss that about flat sharing and uni and school...climbing into bed with friends to watch tv or read.

I've never heard of any such thing - except in rare old black/white films like St Trinians!

I've never done that - and never heard of anybody doing it.