Childminder 1st/warfighter 2nd.

[Talk Wrench]

Interesting debate here folks.

Firstly, from what I read, the case is ongoing and although a sex discrimination and race discrimination tribunal was won, the compensation case is ongoing.

This case will be pivotal for the forces if she wins. I sincerely hope her case for compensation is thrown out.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, she is nothing more than a p1ss taker who sees nothing more than nice shiny pounds because of her kid, her gender, her CHOSEN profession's "apparent incompatibility" and her colour.

Add those together and ..............KeeeRRCHINGG, she's onto a politically correct payout, courtesy of the taxpayer who has paid her wage for the 7 years up to 2008.

It's wrong, we know it's wrong but even the fullest of outrage buses won't change the initial rulings.

Now, seeing as some of you seem to object to single parents in the forces, I would like to share a small tale.

My ex is serving. We have 2 lads in their teens. Even throughout our seperate years, no matter what she has done to inflict misery on me, ( access issues, access to my kids denied, CSA involvement , loss of house etc etc) I will defend her by saying that in her 20 years of service, never once has she flinched or shyed away from her service responsibilities. She's done more dets than could be expected of her.

She's done the RAF, our kids and herself proud.

TW

 

[Spearmint]

Both sides should be flexible on this issue but not to the point where it has a detrimental effect on either the Service Persons workload / commitments or security of their families welfare.

I have known a few single parents who manage to balance both aspects brilliantly. Consequently I've known many more Singlies who try to magic up any number of excuses in order to play 'Hot Potato'.

I'm a parent who at the minute has the luxury of the other half's family providing our Childcare but I imagine that will change soon as my spider sense is tingling with reference to a posting. The main thing is though, it will be handled without little impact on the RAF even if it means that she becomes a full time Housewife.

I'm actually enjoying a day off now due to being let down at short notice WRT Childcare as I worked the last stand down day that was granted. In essence, this backs up my first paragraph, flexibility.

 

[OK..Igiveup]

time for change

time for change

Not specific to this case but;
I think it is about time the Forces realised we do not put the service first any more!

I have given nearly 20 years of commitment and can safely say I have received nothing but a kick in teeth over and over.
My wife and I have bent over backwards and they need to learn that people have lives outside nowadays! It's affecting the kids now and if I wasn't so close to the magic 22 I would have jumped and be doing the same job but in a polo top instead of blues, the offer was there, but I felt I owed the service, how stupid was I?

My wife works and it costs us a fortune in childcare and nerves when I go away, she has given up loads because of the bad planning from our masters over the years and the sooner they realise this and cut the deployments from 4 months to 2 or 3 months that are much more manageable instead of going for 6 or 12 months lengths the better!

If I got pinged for a 6 month'er I couldn't afford to go.....

 

[elnino]

Apart from you though bird?


Single dads should do the decent thing and pvr too. The simple fact is that single parenthood with custody is completely incompatible with service life. Adios.



No I am not joking. You can stay because you have childcare in the format of your wife. If the wife leaves you then you should give her custody of the brats or leave. That way we won't have any future unforeseen admin issues from you.



Wrong. The RAF comes first.

If you want a family and stable family life find another career.

C0CK!!!DT_Xtremez_32:

 

[elnino]

Not specific to this case but;
I think it is about time the Forces realised we do not put the service first any more!

I have given nearly 20 years of commitment and can safely say I have received nothing but a kick in teeth over and over.
My wife and I have bent over backwards and they need to learn that people have lives outside nowadays! It's affecting the kids now and if I wasn't so close to the magic 22 I would have jumped and be doing the same job but in a polo top instead of blues, the offer was there, but I felt I owed the service, how stupid was I?

My wife works and it costs us a fortune in childcare and nerves when I go away, she has given up loads because of the bad planning from our masters over the years and the sooner they realise this and cut the deployments from 4 months to 2 or 3 months that are much more manageable instead of going for 6 or 12 months lengths the better!

If I got pinged for a 6 month'er I couldn't afford to go.....

I fully undarstand your point but would that not lead to a two tier system in so much as singlies being pinged more often for short notice OOAs for example?

 

[RAF Bird]

......... flexibility.

Which we all know is the key to modern Air Power!....

ILLBW will be soo proud! DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[theladf]

Ian Collins on TalkSPORT is about to discuss this matter in the first hour of his show, could be interesting to hear people's opinions.

 

[grumpyoldb]

Them were the days when a wraf got pregnant and was shown the gate! DT_Xtremez_42: DT_Xtremez_31:

 

[monobrow]

Them were the days when a wraf got pregnant and was shown the gate! DT_Xtremez_42: DT_Xtremez_31:

Was it a scary gate as an attempt to try and make them miscarry? You know... back in the days when pontius was a pilot? They did all sorts of weird things back in the dark ages...

 

[grumpyoldb]

Was it a scary gate as an attempt to try and make them miscarry? You know... back in the days when pontius was a pilot? They did all sorts of weird things back in the dark ages...

pontius was a nav when I was in. DT_Xtremez_42:

It's a different world mate. Men were men and wimmin stayed at home and looked after the kids. DT_Xtremez_14:

First wife was an RAF nurse, but came out as soon as we got married. That's the way it was in those day's.

 

[RAF Bird]

pontius was a nav when I was in. DT_Xtremez_42:

It's a different world mate. Men were men and wimmin stayed at home and looked after the kids. DT_Xtremez_14:

First wife was an RAF nurse, but came out as soon as we got married. That's the way it was in those day's.

Ferking hell grumps.... do you want me to pull up a sandbag? ......

Back in the good old days... you sound like your about to cark it! DT_Xtremez_14:

 

[Spearmint]

Which we all know is the key to modern Air Power!....

ILLBW will be soo proud! DT_Xtremez_14:

Ha ha! I adhere to the RISE ethos quite well but there is no way I could compere to that cabbage! He's just a bloody wind-up merchant on here anyway what with how he gets a flash out of everyone so quickly! DT_Xtremez_30:

It may be of little importance to the original thread but through being mates with her son many years ago, I know one of the first WRAF's that successfully sued the MOD over her dismissal on becoming Pregnant.

So WRT such rulings as what my friends Mother became victim to, gone are the days where you could get away with having such a hard and fast stance.

 

[shoutingwind]

I fully undarstand your point but would that not lead to a two tier system in so much as singlies being pinged more often for short notice OOAs for example?

But there IS a two tier system for OOA already, with the singles being sent away as first choice/ at short notice/ over certain time periods....
I'm not in anyway saying that the married don't pull their share, because i know they do, much emotional hardship it causes them too...

And maybe that is how it should be, after all as a singley i can much more easily drop my life as someone with kids, as long as a squadron doesn't only use sigleys then it isn't really a problem.

In this case, where a mother couldn't do a duty because of her child, maybe the forces should help provide crèche/ after school/ before school care? On base here (kiwi-land) there is a subsidized school club, to look after the sprogs for the time between work and school starting and finishing and the welfare people have a list of base babysitters that can be called on at short notice. It seems to work....

 

[True Blue Jack]

maybe the forces should help provide crèche/ after school/ before school care? On base here (kiwi-land) there is a subsidized school club, to look after the sprogs for the time between work and school starting and finishing and the welfare people have a list of base babysitters that can be called on at short notice. It seems to work....

Bingo! A common sense solution to a problem facing single parents and couples alike. On-base creches/childminders that are willing to work unsociable hours. Still not a catch-all solution but one that helps the majority.


It'll never happen....

 

[yorkieterrier]

creches wouldnt just have to be flexible, but reasonable when charging you for flexibility. At one unit i was at, the on camp childcare facility charged you one hours fee for every 15 minutes that you used them before 8 am and after 5pm. someone used to drop little Johnny off at 745 and pick him up at 510. that day cost the same as though he had been there 12 hours instead of 10.5. they could get away with it because they were the only childcare provider around for miles.
And even though it was on camp, they didnt charge reduced rates for military personnel.

 

[Scaley brat]

I know one of the first WRAF's that successfully sued the MOD over her dismissal on becoming Pregnant.

... and I worked with one that told me she would deliberately get pregnant to get out the RAF if they posted her to Germany !

 

[vim_fuego]

creches wouldnt just have to be flexible, but reasonable when charging you for flexibility. At one unit i was at, the on camp childcare facility charged you one hours fee for every 15 minutes that you used them before 8 am and after 5pm. someone used to drop little Johnny off at 745 and pick him up at 510. that day cost the same as though he had been there 12 hours instead of 10.5. they could get away with it because they were the only childcare provider around for miles.
And even though it was on camp, they didnt charge reduced rates for military personnel.

Northwood nursery/creche was an absoluite disgrace price wise...IIRC it charged about £650-700 for the month for your child full time back in 06...plus many of us started 'watch' at 0700 and it opened at 0730! It lived on camp probably paying naff all for the porta-cabin facilities about 20 seconds from everywhere on camp (its not that big a camp) but they charged off-camp London prices no-doubt praying on the NATO guys and their generious overseas allowances...

Made my blood boil it did...

 

[RAF Bird]

I used to pay (back in 2006/07) my childminder £580 a month. I even worked shift then and we closed every Friday at 1130hrs so out of the 20 days I was paying her for she only had him for 9. Ridiculous!! Shouting wind is right there should be a subsidised (sp?) crèche/after/before school club on camp that would make peoples lives alot easier all round.

 

[The Masked Geek]

Shouting wind is right there should be a subsidised (sp?) crèche/after/before school club on camp that would make peoples lives alot easier all round.

And who's gonna pay for it?

I'm a father myself and would benefit from such a scheme but unless there's some magical pot of money somewhere, there's no funding for it.

 

[vim_fuego]

And who's gonna pay for it?

I'm a father myself and would benefit from such a scheme but unless there's some magical pot of money somewhere, there's no funding for it.

There is no 'designated' funding for it...There is money out there but it's being sent to other things...some things are really important like bullets and body armour whilst others are not like MP's ridiculous expense claims and second home scams, continuous attitude assessments that end up un-opened in the bin, CD's sent to all of us telling us we are in the RAF and that is good (remember those a few years ago? we never had so many coasters for our mugs in the t-bar), EO traiing that never changes year on year during CCS, outsourcing where it costs more after the event than before (think locums in our med centres...rumour has it that they are on up to a grand a day in some places) and so on...

We p1ss money away every day as debated muchly on these forums...There is money out there it's just that this subject isn't deemed important enough behind AVM Smythe-Smthye-Smiths entertaining budget...