thats it paid employment over for me . I am past the retirement age for women and I have been involved in care work for about 25 years,.. I have mostly worked every other weekend and at times three weekends out of four.. and a total of 18 nights in the month were taken up with respite work.. my work day began when others were thinking of finishing .. unsociable hours ha ha . I have been self employed .. therefore no pension or siokness benefits from employers and I dont even get a leaving do .. I have had hardly ever had a sickness or days off..and recently when I had a toe operation , I had no visitors For most things that I wanted to do, where I couldtnt take the children , I rearranged weekends or nights .. and even worked extra before/after holidays.. therefore parents got their full quota of nights off. for this what did I get WELL BELOW MINIMUM WAGES but thats the system and my choice.. when I started respite caring it was a supplement to my wages as I worked part time in elderly care homes.. but over the years it became a full time job and I gave up work in the care homes . I got thumped, bitten, scratched .. I have had sleepness nights and had to cope the next day .. I have been on a time table, always having to be home for the school bus, and have the children ready for the school bus in the mornings Its a two bedroom house and one of the rooms was for the children.. I had to change the bedroom set up, some of the children thought they were the only ones to use that bedroom . and change the bedding at least twice a week., some times three times . for some there was a bed guard on the bed and other children didnt want that .. and dont mention the washing !! I have had to shop on my day off as I couldnt /wouldnt take children shopping ..and do the house work and garden on that day also .. I am a lone carer and it was just too much of an inconvenience to run out of anything while a child was with me.. ( you cant just pop to the shops when you need to get a wheelchair and child ready or walk and take child and wheel chair to the shops .. I have done it before now.. but that dammed hill is a killer!!) I have the strength of an ox, a reflex that would put cassius clay to shame.. I have had to have furniture to suit a busy house.. I have had paint and other stuff smeared on walls and furniture.....the furniture has been used as trampolines, climbing frames,, bouncy castles , and dens. I have coaxed and cajoled , I have taught and corrected .. I have encouraged and praised ... I have shed tears of joy and sadness and flopped on the settee at night after their bed time.. . in the mean time , personally I went through a divorce and relationship breakups.. I did however, get a BA in Fine Art.. studying at Bolton university and took up dancing with stone the crows.. I have experienced many an assault course with or without the children.. been wall climbing , raft building , banana boating, canoeing .. aerial climbing .. theme park days out , animal parks .birthday parties.childrens discos .. would I do it all again? .... I dont know ... it was hard work .. but the satisfaction that I got from seeing the children acheivements is priceless. I have attended football training and completion games and still dont know a thing about football,,.. and what do I get ...?? I get the freedom.. to attend what I want to do and when I want... I can have an alchohic drink in the evening .. I can sit in my back garden at night.even in winter .. I dont have to go to bed a nine,, in case I get a sleepness night.. I am free.................
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 19:08:49 +0000
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