make do and mend for tougher times

Evie74_2

GQ- trains, buses, queues in the Post Office/supermarket, even just walking along minding my own business in the street - you name it, a weirdo will seek me out. I have come to accept that I just have the kind of face that attracts the crazies! My parents aren't afflicted though - it must be a genetic blip with me! I pity my DDs as my DH suffers from the same magnetic qualities so the girls will have inherited a double dose!

Evie xx

stiltwalker

Morning fellow toughies

Another one here too - I ALWAYS get the nutter on the train! Good job I don't wok in a call centre as no doubt I'd get the nutter on the phone as well.

Kidcat - virtual hugs, hope there is not too much chaos to sort from either water or boy.

Been up for ages this morning as DS was up with his teeth so I have perused ebay for a chair for FIL when he comes home from hospital (he's 84 and he slipped and fell and broke his femur - not doing to bad all things considering, phew!!!), done the Tesco order for tomorrow and caught up with you lot of chatterboxes. Sounds like your plans are coming on apace fuddle, hopefully if sis is still expecting it'll be a little while before she needs a childminder and by then you'll be full up with paying kids that won't be expecting extras for family for free!

Right must go and get the sleepy heads up and get ready for church. Have a good day all.

elona

fuddle

If you get it clear in your own mind that it is not you saying "No"
- it is the rules or DH or both that make it impossible - that should help draw a line under the request. I would not mention that you are considering the idea of childminding at all and wait till everything is done and dusted and you are fully booked to let on anything.

Sounds as if she would take the mick with paying up the agreed amount, want longer hours than agreed and special treatment as well while denigrating everything you do. Don't touch the idea with a bargepole.

Evie

Family (dh and dds) used to have the idea that bought stuff was superior somehow and it has taken a long time to get them to appreciate home cooked food. DH now is delighted if I get YS stuff to slam into freezer as it means we have more choice in menu and eat better. Today's lamb is nearly half price , potatoes are home grown, asparagus is from AF and veg is from Al**. Might use up cooking apple and make apple pancakes for pud or else do a cabbage with onion and apple side dish.

Going to put casserole in oven and have a cuppa so see you later.

Evie74_2

PIC- fantastic bargains! I am very envious of your haul :T I haven't been to a jumble sale in years - they don't seem to have them anywhere near where I live. I used to get some great bargains when I lived "at home" with my parents. My mum was always horrified though; she always felt it was a reflection on her that I was "forced" to buy my clothes from the CS/jumble sales - actually I've always just liked a bargain! :rotfl:

DH is the best at finding CS bargains though - most of his clothes have designer labels and every single thing cost less than £5! He got a pair of Armani jeans for £2 the other week, perfect fit. He regularly picks up YSL shirts for 50p and last winter managed to get a coat (good quality Debenhams) brand new with all the tags still on for £4.

The CS's seem to be a little more wily/delusional with womens' clothes though - they mark bog standard clothes from Tesco or Peacocks up with ridiculous prices - when you could buy the same thing new for less.

Evie xx

greenbee

Fuddle - make sure you are fully booked before you even tell your family about it. At least get your baby space filled and then you can always tell them you decided to go ahead because people were offering to pay you to look after their kids because of your experience, and sorry, but you're full. Being a CM actually seems to be a good way to avoid your sister taking advantage!

Eta - why not write your activities up in a blog? Maybe the girls can help you to choose pictures (or draw pictures for it) and then they have a record of their holiday too.

Kidcat - there are gadgets for taps as well. They are used for people with dementia to stop thhem flooding when they forget to turn taps off, so it might be worth doing more research.

mardatha

I'd second what Greenbee said - get it all done and sorted and THEN tell them. Because otherwise it will all go to custard and she'll mess you around, you wont cope and you'll give it up - and then the family will all say SEE? WE TOLD YOU IT WOULDNT WORK!
I think I had your mum too lol!

Byatt

Fuddle, you can tell me to mind my own business, and I don't know the going rate for child minders but I think charging a lot less than others can undermine those already in business as well as undervalue the job you are doing which is being a professional child minder. You will have to put in place a lot of legislated rules as well as training. It's not a hobby but a real, creditable business. What you use the money for is entirely up to you, getting more educational toys or just normal every day things including feeding them.

I also think if people think something is cheap they can take advantage. You have to set the bar to a height that benefits you and the mums/children.

That's just my opinion of course.

Byatt

Ok, so I went into the just around the corner garage to get petrol and top up my key meter. The manager approaches me and said something I didn't quite understand (he has a foreign accent), so calls me over to him, asks if I spent £20 on the key metere 2 days ago, I said no...(I never pay £20!:o), so ushers me back to the counter, shows me a blurry security photo and asks if I am that person?! For a horrible second I thought it was, so can almost forgive him the insult, the pic was of a generic middle aged, overweight, tired grey haired woman :eek:...no I said, THAT is not me! (I don't have that cardi :cool:). The girl who had served me, thankfully said, after looking at me more closely, that I looked nothing like the picture and she knew it wasn't me. He however was not convinced, I could tell. So, I sloped off. I mean I live just around the corner, I am in there several times a week, why would I be a con merchant?? :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Morning, and a lovely sunny one it is too ! We now own a nearly new garden shredder courtesy of a garage sale just up the road. £10 was all it cost and it is, once we have cleaned it thoroughly, going to be used for chopping our cider apples, saving me untold blisters and making the whole process so much faster than chopping by hand. My treasure from the same place is a Sad Iron, complete with iron slug to fit inside it once heated on the stovetop which was £2.50p. It needs a little attention but will join my others on top of the woodburner once it's finished. We are having a barbecue today once the washing is dry and off the line and taking advantage of this sunshine. He who knows is on the lottie digging some of the maincrop potatoes which I shall cook, mash and freeze later on today. We now have 1 and a half rows of parsnips germinated and growing on so perhaps we will have a small harvest after all this year. I have harvested a nice big courgette and lots of rocket from the polytunnel today and will pull the last of the beetroot that are ready and cook them for supper. We have loads coming along that will be ready in a few weeks. The tunnel is making a real difference this year as I don't think we would have had anything to use without it. Hope everyone has a nice day and that you ALL have some of this sunshine, it's lovely! Cheers Lyn and a sunbaked lurcher XXX.

cat_smith

GreyQueen wrote: »

Good to see you back, smileyt, I was hoping you hadn't succumbed to the blues over the job situation. I'm very sorry to hear about your sister and hope she is soon on the mend and back home.

Oh, I know exactly what you mean about children.........I'm afraid I'm a terrible woman who'll bike across town to see someone's kittens but not walk cross the office to see a new baby. A colleague of mine summed up her own (lack of) baby feelings thus; "They don't have fur or enough legs!"

Despite having been otherwise engaged when the maternal instinct was being doled out, small children are quite drawn to me, which I find inexplicable tbh. Have come to the conclusion that it must be because I'm softly-spoken and not prone to sudden and alarming movements. I have learned not to wear dangling earrings around babies, tho!

Good job that there's a lot of willing mummies out there or somebody might've got ideas about co-opting the likes of me into it, and I don't think I have the patience for small people 24/7. Didn't go a bundle on kids even when I was one......;)

Quick Q for the dog-owners up here. I saw something odd in the park this afternoon (wash your mind out, smileyt!) It was a middling-sized pooch of the Heinz breed wearing a coat with panniers on it. They were loaded but couldn't have been holding more than about 1 can of food on each side.

What was that all about? Are people using pooches to carry the shopping or is this some kind of training thingy? It was a smart, professionally-made rig btw.

It's going to join the list of the Odd Fings Seen in the Park, currently topped by the severed pig's head, for which I can find no rational explanation whatsoever...........

GQ same thing here with small screechig things. I last about 10mins before wanting to drop kick them out of the nearest window. Four legs on the other hand, and I can't get enough.

Re. the panniers. We have them for Oz. He carries his own food and water when we hike.