Working Mummies Support Group

[MummyNaomi]

Just trying to work out vacation care. Ouchies on the bank account now as I have to pay for two of them. Wish I could pay it monthly in the lead up to it. I just have to get better at managing the finances!

It's expensive isn't it. Ours is $50 per day, thankfully the Childcare rebate applies to OHSC and Vacation Care. DS is going two days in the April Holidays. I have arranged AL for the 2nd week and with my RDO, work from home day and my Mum we have the rest covered. DHs Mum/Step Father could have him, but..... I'm not a big fan of them as carers, the couple of times they've had him, they've disappointed me both times. They looked after DS recently when he was recovering from an ear infection and we wanted him to have another rest day from school and DH and I just couldn't take another day off work. We've sent a healthy lunch with a small treat, and they ended up feeding him three donuts instead I know they love him but I dont completely trust them. Step Father is a terrible driver. MIL encourages poor behaviour, then we have to undo it all when he returns home, so its just easier not to use them unless we are literally desperate (eg have used all our carers leave etc). So instead he will go to a couple of vacation care days. One of them is an excursion morning to 'The Food Forrest", and the other is an Easter Craft Day - he'll love both and is keen MIL asked what he was doing in the school holidays, I felt a bit bad but I just positioned it that he wanted to go to Vacation Care with his friends.

WYSIWYG - I hope the perfect job with work/life balance comes up. I cant imagine how hard it is, I've got a pretty good arrangement obviously. My boss has 5 kids which makes him very accommodating even though I know he'd prefer I was full time. I wish all employers were so understanding. Fingers Crossed something comes your way that has the hours that will suit!

[Frangipani Lou]

I hope you're feeling more sprightly PN.
Fingers crossed for you wysiwyg.
One trick that an ex used on his job applications( I think he was in the same sector as you) was to copy and paste the job criteria/ key selection criteria etc into the end on his r?sum? and then change the text color of what he'd copied and pasted to white. That way, it tricks the computer systems that sort applicants into yes and no (based on the words in the application), his application would always end up in the yes file. When his cover letter and resume was printed out or viewed on screen, the 'trick' was invisible because of the white font.
I've used it too and I think it helped my applications get seen more often.

[wysiwyg]

One trick that an ex used on his job applications( I think he was in the same sector as you) was to copy and paste the job criteria/ key selection criteria etc into the end on his r?sum? and then change the text color of what he'd copied and pasted to white. That way, it tricks the computer systems that sort applicants into yes and no (based on the words in the application), his application would always end up in the yes file. When his cover letter and resume was printed out or viewed on screen, the 'trick' was invisible because of the white font.
I've used it too and I think it helped my applications get seen more often.

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't heard that idea before. I don't actually have a problem with getting my applications seen or even getting contacted for jobs - I got three contacts yesterday - they may all have been for the same position though. If I was happy to do the full on 40+ hours a week with the added travel to wherever in Melbourne I could have a new job starting on Monday. The whole r?sum? thing seems not to matter much.

Kids have driven me bonkers with their leaving daycare routine, I leave work at about 4:15 = 4:30 to beat the traffic an get to pick them up by 5:30 and they don't ever want to leave the place, so half an hour is spent faffing around trying to leave. It is good they love the place so much but sometimes I think if it wasn't for the traffic I would be better off just arriving at 5:55 (it shuts at 6:00). DD has begged me so much that she wants to go one Friday (one of her friends only goes on a Friday as is at an ELC kinder the other days) - that I have booked them in for Fri 11th - and I will have a day at home doing a couple of hours work (as a contribution to the extra fees for the day) chilling, and trying to get the house in a fit state for when my parents arrive back.

[wysiwyg]

I had a work from home today which was lovely - didn't have to drag kids out of bed at 6:00AM (and they actually slept in till about 6:40) and walked them round to daycare - I love the walk to daycare so that was good - very glad I negotiated to do Wednesdays from home for the last three weeks of my contract.

While I will still look for work - DH and I have basically decided that I won't go back full-time and will try to get something with more suitable hours than the past contract - after thinking I could do five days if days were abit shorter we have reevaluated and decided everyone has just been too frazzled with this current contract that unless it was five days with school hours it would be a no go. I have saved a load of money this contract so can fund daycare while I am looking (although that seems painful - seeing the hard earned money go on daycare when I could have them at home while I am not working - it will only be really painful this tax year - if I don't find something then next tax year our CCB will go back up so it won't be so bad).

[Astrolady]

New thread time Working Mummies Support Group #2