Nice People Thread Number 11 - A Treasury of Nice People

Nikkster

Doozergirl wrote: »

Move the stuff to an upstairs room where the door shuts...

Think I need to speak to the council about getting a 'bulky waste' collection sorted out - I'm sure with the bed gone it'll look much better and I'll be able to think about secreting much of the rest of the stuff elsewhere in the house.

I think my dining table is going to be delivered at the end of May...

lostinrates

Doozergirl wrote: »

Move the stuff to an upstairs room where the door shuts...

Not the bed,

Just list the bed on free cycle or however you plan to get rid of it .

Imagine looking through the open door way to your beautiful table.

neverdespairgirl

Isaac and I made it back from Kent this afternoon, and have had a lovely time with OH, who has recovered from his 24 hours a day with endless noisy relatives in Israel week for Passover. And he's made a salad with feta, which I could eat and enjoy on my new anti-sickness pills.

I brought the Moses basket and the ironed and folded baby clothes in the car, which makes it all seem much more imminent!

Nikkster

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

makes it all seem much more imminent!

Only a couple of weeks left now, isn't it?

How exciting :j

lostinrates

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Isaac and I made it back from Kent this afternoon, and have had a lovely time with OH, who has recovered from his 24 hours a day with endless noisy relatives in Israel week for Passover. And he's made a salad with feta, which I could eat and enjoy on my new anti-sickness pills.

I brought the Moses basket and the ironed and folded baby clothes in the car, which makes it all seem much more imminent!

My sister lost weight while pregnant (apart from weight of babies) and didn't have the difficulty you have had. Do you think you have the same in pregnancies, or does food you can eat and a change in pace balance it out?

Either way, I am so glad you can eat this evening. Going into labour low on energy through inadequate intake must be a deal harder than the arduous process looks. I am glad you're 'fueling' a little more happily.

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

My mother cleaned for a while when I was at secondary school. She's like me in that she sees all jobs as pretty worthwhile and no job like that demeaning. Some of the things she was expected to do very clearly showed not all people felt cleaners were worthy of respect.

To put it bluntly, I was brought up by a woman who was brought up in a home where staff were a given. She brought me up with the mantra she was brought up with that you don't ask people to do what you are not prepared to do yourself.

I'm not sure I follow your use of the phrase "prepared to do yourself". I certainly wouldn't expect anybody to do anything for me that I considered to be demeaning - although I think that earning a living by doing useful things for people is inherently worthy of respect, so I can't imagine that I would ever consider it demeaning for anybody to do something for me that I needed help with. Can you give examples of the sort of things you have in mind as demeaning and not reasonable to pay somebody to do for you?

However, I routinely pay people to do things I'm not prepared to do for myself. I'm not prepared to hire a digger and level my garden myself. I'm not prepared to cut my own hair. I'm not prepared to coach my daughter to play cricket after school on Wednesdays. So I pay people to do these things.

My cleaner really enjoys emptying cupboards, cleaning them, sorting the stuff out and putting it back tidily. So far she's done three of my kitchen cupboards and my fridge. After the first one she told me how much she'd enjoyed it and asked if I had any more cupboards she could do on subsequent weeks - hence the other two, and the fridge. I would hate doing that, but she loves it. She tells me that she also enjoys vacuuming, polishing, mopping etc. I enjoy doing the work that I do that earns the money that I use to pay her. I don't feel I'm demeaning her and she evidently doesn't feel demeaned by working for me. Everybody's happy.

I don't ask her to sort out anything other than kitchen cupboards because I don't expect her to be able to know what's important and what can be thrown away. With a kitchen cupboard, she can assume that in date food is to be kept, and out of date food is to be put in a pile for me to deal with later.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

... which I could eat and enjoy on my new anti-sickness pills.

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

neverdespairgirl

Nikkster wrote: »

Only a couple of weeks left now, isn't it?

How exciting :j

Just over, yes - due date is 14th May or 12th May, depending on dates / scan.

lostinrates wrote: »

My sister lost weight while pregnant (apart from weight of babies) and didn't have the difficulty you have had. Do you think you have the same in pregnancies, or does food you can eat and a change in pace balance it out?

Either way, I am so glad you can eat this evening. Going into labour low on energy through inadequate intake must be a deal harder than the arduous process looks. I am glad you're 'fueling' a little more happily.

I was the same weight at my 34 week appointment as I was at my 6 week booking in appointment, and bearing in mind the baby / fluid / placenta / extra blood / all the rest of it, I must have lost weight over the rest of me in order to make up the difference. Good thing I wasn't slim to start with, so I can spare it! I don't actually recommend the "lose body fat through constant vomiting while pregnant" diet though, I don't think it's particularly healthy.

They don't weigh you after 34 weeks because you start retaining water and getting swollen feet / ankles etc, so it doesn't tell you much about anything.

I went on the new pills a fortnight ago, and they really have helped. I still have to be careful of cooking smells, and I can't eat meat or fish, but I can eat most other normal things, in small and frequent quantities. And it's made me feel a great deal better. The last week in Kent I've not been scoffing large meals (there's no room for large meals in my stomach at the moment) but I've been eating lots of regular snacks and small meals, and feel much better for it.

lostinrates

LydiaJ wrote: »

I'm not sure I follow your use of the phrase "prepared to do yourself". I certainly wouldn't expect anybody to do anything for me that I considered to be demeaning - although I think that earning a living by doing useful things for people is inherently worthy of respect, so I can't imagine that I would ever consider it demeaning for anybody to do something for me that I needed help with. Can you give examples of the sort of things you have in mind as demeaning and not reasonable to pay somebody to do for you?

However, I routinely pay people to do things I'm not prepared to do for myself. I'm not prepared to hire a digger and level my garden myself. I'm not prepared to cut my own hair. I'm not prepared to coach my daughter to play cricket after school on Wednesdays. So I pay people to do these things.

My cleaner really enjoys emptying cupboards, cleaning them, sorting the stuff out and putting it back tidily. So far she's done three of my kitchen cupboards and my fridge. After the first one she told me how much she'd enjoyed it and asked if I had any more cupboards she could do on subsequent weeks - hence the other two, and the fridge. I would hate doing that, but she loves it. She tells me that she also enjoys vacuuming, polishing, mopping etc. I enjoy doing the work that I do that earns the money that I use to pay her. I don't feel I'm demeaning her and she evidently doesn't feel demeaned by working for me. Everybody's happy.

I don't ask her to sort out anything other than kitchen cupboards because I don't expect her to be able to know what's important and what can be thrown away. With a kitchen cupboard, she can assume that in date food is to be kept, and out of date food is to be put in a pile for me to deal with later.



:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j

I'd do cut my own hair sometimes


I mean, I wouldn't be prepared to go into someone's home, paid to clean on a normal cleaning rate, and have to deal with difficult to clean surfaces like concrete floors, unsafe ones like our bedroom/ old bathroom, or up cleanable things like windows in bad need of replacement where cleaning might cause damage and be in fear of safety, damage and just .....find it very hard.

Plus the ploughing through stuff. Books piles everywhere etc . And I thi the mouse in the kitchen really would push the limits of many domestic cleaners.

Though, I feel we made very good head way today, so I am very pleased on that front. A day like that six times a year and I'd be much more content.


Have added Nutella to my shopping list for mouse, and left doors open so cars can get in, but their not fussed since biscuits started. :mad: stopping biscuits.






Edit:would definitely do digger if I was skilled enough, but the are a pricey bit of kit to break, and my digger man is like a Ballet dancer in his, he could almost dust the china with it. 'Prepared to' as in would do if had skill, ability, time. Handing dirty work to someone because its 'beneath you' is a step to forgetting there but for the grace of god go I....'

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

I'd do cut my own hair sometimes


I mean, I wouldn't be prepared to go into someone's home, paid to clean on a normal cleaning rate, and have to deal with difficult to clean surfaces like concrete floors, unsafe ones like our bedroom/ old bathroom, or up cleanable things like windows in bad need of replacement where cleaning might cause damage and be in fear of safety, damage and just .....find it very hard.

Plus the ploughing through stuff. Books piles everywhere etc . And I thi the mouse in the kitchen really would push the limits of many domestic cleaners.

Though, I feel we made very good head way today, so I am very pleased on that front. A day like that six times a year and I'd be much more content.

Have added Nutella to my shopping list for mouse, and left doors open so cars can get in, but their not fussed since biscuits started. :mad: stopping biscuits.

Edit:would definitely do digger if I was skilled enough, but the are a pricey bit of kit to break, and my digger man is like a Ballet dancer in his, he could almost dust the china with it. 'Prepared to' as in would do if had skill, ability, time. Handing dirty work to someone because its 'beneath you' is a step to forgetting there but for the grace of god go I....'

I thought you'd make sense once I knew what you meant! It's like how I always empty the bins and make sure the loos are, well, reasonably presentable, before the cleaner comes, and shut the doors to rooms that aren't tidy enough to be cleaned conveniently, so she knows I don't want her to clean them. There's still plenty to be done in my house, though, that I think it's reasonable to pay her to do.

ETA Considering things to be "beneath me" is not part of the way I view the world. If anything, I admire my cleaner for being able to enjoy the jobs I hate.

lostinrates

LydiaJ wrote: »

I thought you'd make sense once I knew what you meant! It's like how I always empty the bins and make sure the loos are, well, reasonably presentable, before the cleaner comes, and shut the doors to rooms that aren't tidy enough to be cleaned conveniently, so she knows I don't want her to clean them. There's still plenty to be done in my house, though, that I think it's reasonable to pay her to do.

ETA Considering things to be "beneath me" is not part of the way I view the world. If anything, I admire my cleaner for being able to enjoy the jobs I hate.

The rooms in my house that are easy to do are.....easy to do. Its not worth getting someone else in to vacuum them tbh. There are two of them One has a dodgy window and DH fills the corners with stuff. Three further rooms could be vacuumed I suppose, and windows done. Windows are one of the few jobs I can get res p to do sometimes. Seems silly to off load that. . Things like my kitchen because of how it is , make no sense for any one but me to do, The room the dogs sleep in ( which is a night mare) I cannot ask any one else to do, I simply wouldn't. The room that that's been knocked in to is the worst though I think.