Need tips from any single parents!

[newmummy85]

Thanks everyone!

It's good to get some advice from parents who have been there and know the situation I am heading into.

I have a bit more perspective now I think, and as much as I would love to go back to the UK for many different reasons (one reason being that I truly love Scotland where XP is and wish I could afford to live there myself!) I can see how it makes more sense to stay here and set up a stable home for her instead.

Hopefully her Dad becomes a bit more internet savvy between now and then so we can all keep in contact, but he still has my laptop so at least he can email. Unfortunately, it means that I am now without my own computer and have to use my parents'.

Just a few weeks to go until she arrives. She is my heart and soul and everything that matters and I am just so excited for her arrival.

[newmummy85]

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my last reply...

Some of you mentioned government housing and waiting lists. I was under the impression that I could rent a house normally through a real estate agency or private and receive some rent assistance from centrelink?

I had it in my mind that I could maybe get a small place for say $200-$250 per week and have it subsidised with rent assistance. If this is not the case, oh dear!!

My parents have investment properties and have indicated that maybe they could buy one that would be suitable for me and DD to live in, but even so, I would still have to pay a decent amount of rent.

[tattoo_mama]

Oh, and I forgot to mention in my last reply...

Some of you mentioned government housing and waiting lists. I was under the impression that I could rent a house normally through a real estate agency or private and receive some rent assistance from centrelink?

I had it in my mind that I could maybe get a small place for say $200-$250 per week and have it subsidised with rent assistance. If this is not the case, oh dear!!

My parents have investment properties and have indicated that maybe they could buy one that would be suitable for me and DD to live in, but even so, I would still have to pay a decent amount of rent.

im not sure if its the same as here (WA) but we can apply to ministry of housing to pay the full bond, and yes u get rent assistance but it isnt much (upto $60 a week i think), im paying $100 a week where im sharing and get about $20 a week rent assistance. but as a single mum u will get FTB a and B and single parenting payment. if you go to the clink website they have a calculator thingy you can put in how much u earn (you have to take into account anything youve earnt this financial yr) and ur expected rent etc and itll give u an estimate of what benefits u could receive. like i said before im on full benefits (full spp, ftb a and ftbb and rent assist) and i get about 850 a fortnite. GL

[Inanna]

I haven't read all the responses darling - but I would be very very very very careful about taking your daughter out of the country onto his turf...

If you take her over there he may choose to initiate legal action to gain some visitation/custody. He might seem like the nice meek type but I can assure you oncce the gloves are off things can get very ****eyed. If he was to initiate some type of legal action you would have to stay put until the case was heard - very costly. Plus he may gain some custody tha would then prevent you from leaving the country. Remember his relationship with his child is his responsibility not yours. If he wants a relationship with her he needs to put on his big boy undies and do it.

Please think about this aspect of it.

Otherwise - I would be using that money to help establish yourself.

[tattoo_mama]

yes i think Inanna is eight, correct me if im wrong but im pretty sure if hes listed on the birth cert, then u go to the UK and then come back he can do you for child kidnapping (theres some other term for it but you get the drift)

and i can vouch for XP's getting very nasty when they seem lovely...at first xp wanted to see DD, then he said he wanted nothing to do with us and refused to pay child support, then he wanted to get her taken off me...this is someone who supposedly still loved me!!! so yes its his responsibility to come see you/her, as harsh as it sounds, hes man enough to get you pg, then hes man enough to come to you!!

def use the money to set urself up and save ur baby bonus...once bubs arrives you may feel differently...then you will have money saved up for something else!! GL xx