Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

lostinrates

misskool wrote: »

No car today and trains not running. I have to get to work otherwise 2 weeks of work is wasted because of some snow

Good luck getting in.


Dh is working from home, which s useful as I am still unwell. Parent is going to have to drive me to other parent ( see the difficulty with this :rotfl:) as I don't trust myself in a car this morning.

I have already accepted I need to go back to the doctor.....when the snow and ice are over though.

Generali

BertieUK wrote: »

Just as a thought - I wonder where this young lady worked before you accepted her as an Au pair - we all have to begin somewhere in our chosen careers and you gave her a chance that she did not grasp. Makes me think that she may have just come out of college and had the theory but did not have the practice.

She had much the same background as our other girls. We want to learn from this and get someone next time who wants to learn English not who wants to visit Aus. We'll push the point a bit more about the driving and cooking in the interview process too. I think the driving was her kidding herself or perhaps not thinking through what she was saying. She actually can't drive though, it's not confidence.

The cooking could have been lost in translation as she can bake to an extent.

We want to make the selection process more robust as this isn't fair on us, the kids or the Au pair. Ultimately we will never perfect this, all we can do is make it better and better.

Nikkster

misskool wrote: »

No car today and trains not running. I have to get to work otherwise 2 weeks of work is wasted because of some snow

I do really miss being in a lab, but the upside is we've been told to work at home if at all possible today.

I haven't used my car since Wednesday so I think it would probably take about half a day to remove enough snow for me to see. And goodness knows how long to maneuver out of the parking space.

SingleSue

I am going out to attempt to dig my car out very shortly so that I can get the boys to school. Their school is still open but opening late....loads of others in the area are closed!

silvercar

Generali wrote: »

Hi Spirit. I take all your points but the thing is that we have had 5 Au pairs. 4 did a great job and one was sacked. The youngest Au pair we had ended up as our daughter's godmother.

Last Au pair really should know whether or not she can drive and cook, they are fundamental skills. All the Au pairs have had cooking disasters of the 'beginner in the kitchen' sort and that is expected and acceptable.

I think the fundamental problem is being lost: her story doesn't tally with what happened on Friday. That simply isn't acceptable. I can cook a stew for the Au pair to microwave but if I can't trust her she's out of the door.

At a job interview everyone ups their skill levels.

DS2 is nearly 19. He would be fine with the kids, he's gained a lot of experience babysitting his cousins. Fine with the driving (after a few hours practice driving a bigger car and gaining familiarity etc) You would probably be horrified by his download volumes. He would be honest. His cooking would be limited unless you train him to do more and his food shopping to prepare meals would be dire.

DS1 is 22. He is disinterested in kids. His driving would not be confident and his spatial awareness is not great. His cooking is better, though I'm not sure he could manage a roast he is a dab hand with the hob; you would get stir frys, omelettes etc He is honest but has a tendency to get very defensive very quickly.

I asked him about that volume of downloads, he said she probably set it to download a few films and maybe send batches of her videos to mates and left it running.

Can't explain her not answering the door or her phone, which is most worrying.

GDB2222

michaels wrote: »

Driving to the out of hours doc place was 'fun' as although the snow is not deep the roads are mostly very slippery. I checked the stopping distance from less than 10mph and reckon it was more than 30m!

I briefed DD on how to drive in these conditions - don't go over 10 MPH where it's snowy. However, apparently, I should also have told her that it takes longer to stop. She came back complaining that the brakes did not work and went 'bumpety-bumpety'. Well, at least she didn't hit anything and the ABS is definitely working.

silvercar

OH got up at 4am, checked that his flight was not cancelled. Drove to the airport, found his flight had been cancelled, alternative flights left to late for a day trip so he returned home.

silvercar

Most local schools shut. Secondary schools have told pupils with external exams they have to find their own way to school, if they miss the exam they will have to retake in June. Thank goodness this wasn't this time last year when my DS was taking his exams, his whole plan was based on doing some subjects now and some in June.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

OH got up at 4am, checked that his flight was not cancelled. Drove to the airport, found his flight had been cancelled, alternative flights left to late for a day trip so he returned home.

They can't help cancelling, but surely they should tell people! That must be so annoying for him.

GDB2222

misskool wrote: »

No car today and trains not running. I have to get to work otherwise 2 weeks of work is wasted because of some snow

Surely, this is a matter for your manager to, umm, manage? Give him the problem to sort out!