“They Say They Come in Threes”

They Say They Come in Threes.

 

Hello All, long time no update. I can’t even remember the last time I sat down on here with the express intention of writing. It’s not as though I have nothing to update about, I think it’s just a fact of circumstances. For what it’s worth however, I really do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and new year, and that you are all safe.

 

When I say “they say they come in threes”, I mean that’s the old analogy that seems to be Ani’s and my life. I need to go back a fare way to explain all that has happened, but there have been three major set-backs that have taken place. Back on the first of December last year, “the Mini Monk” called me and told of her intentions to move here to Canberra. Her reasons were varied but the main reason was that she missed all of us, and she had only seen her new brother once.

 

AS it turns out, she is now very much a part of our ever growing family, and she too has no intentions of returning home to Brisbane. If you asked me three years ago where I thought I might be now, I probably would have said “on my own with my kids”. The thought of ever having another child, let alone having five of them in the one house would have scared the shit out of me! But I DO have five kids now, and we DO have our fare share of problems. I think it is safe to say that if Ani and I didn’t love each other so much, we would both have re-thought our current living arrangement.

 

Still though, we have both now realized what family life is all about, and just how rewarding it can be. For those of you living here in the land of “Oz”, you will be all too aware of the crisis we are facing as a country in regards to child care. Eddie Groves (whom I worked for years ago delivering milk) was the biggest owner of child care centers in Australia. ABC Child Care centers were seen in almost every suburb, in every state. That would have been ok, except for the fact that the ruthless man crushed any and all private centers that dared to try to make a living themselves. He not only bought all of them, but he was allowed to corner the market and own more than fifty percent of the industry. I’m not sure how that equates in your country, but here that qualifies him for unfair trading because no single company is permitted to own more than half of the total industry.

 

This story gets worse when you find out that he made himself insolvent late last year, placing ALL of those centers in liquidation. We live in a society that requires about 80% of households needing two incomes. If you are in the same boat as us, you would need child care to cope. It pisses me off to know that the government waive carrots under our noses to produce more babies in this country, but ignore the possibility of disasters like this happening. Guys, what all this means in a nutshell is that a figure of around 80 thousand kids in this region alone, now have NO child care facilities available. What does that mean for our already crumbling economy? It means that all those families now have to have one parent at home. I never thought for one second when Ani and I found out that we were pregnant, or from the moment I held Tai in my arms, that I would have to sacrifice my position at work to become a compulsory stay at home dad, and lose an entire wage into this family unit.

 

After agonizing over the decision, Ani and I chose for her to return to work simply because he is the bread winner of the house. We have now effectively lost over 40k a year in wages, AND because Ani earns more than that we are not eligible to receive benefits to offset our loss. Even though we have five children who are dependants, and a father who is now technically unemployed, we receive little help. On top of all that, my ex-wife bless her rotten heart refuses to pay me maintenance for Krys and Tab who now live with me! I paid her all these years, never missed a payment in fact, and now although she does not have them in her care she claims she cant afford to pay me!!! HELLO!!!! We are desperate here and she has the unmitigated gal to cry poor mouth!

 

I’m sorry if this sounds like I am having a sook, but hey, I’m cranky and I NEED to vent!! I am remaining on the books at work till the beginning of March this year. The best they can offer me is an absence of leave with no pay for that time. If after that period I still cant get Tai into child care, I will be required to resign, effectively sacrificing my eventual long service accumulation and the position I have worked so hard and long to achieve. All this because the government allowed one man to bite off more than he could chew, and when it all got too much for him he just tossed it all away and destroyed the lives of too many families to count! It’s a pretty sad world when a game fully employed man has no choice but to leave his secure job because he can not find care for his six month old son.

 

We are on the waiting lists of around eight private centers opening in our area, but all the children who have lost positions with ABC are taking precedent over all new families. It sucks I know, but I can see how this would happen. If I opened a new child care center, I would want to fill positions as soon as I could too, and all those kids are at the very least “guaranteed clientele”. I have been going crazy trying to find night work to compensate for our loss of income, but as yet there is nothing due to closures over the Christmas New Year break. My options ar

e limited to grave yard shift cleaning in schools ect, of which I would be grateful to do, but I am limited to only a few hours a night. If I work right through and then try to stay awake all day with Tai at home, it won’t take too long before I lose the plot completely. We are still waiting for replies.

 

The third major set back has only just happened. Ani has just returned to work after being on maternity leave, only to be told that all staff are required to take a ten percent pay cut and that there is a strong possibility that the job she has held for thirteen years may be gone in as little as three weeks. The business we have been told, is struggling to make money and the economic climate is killing the financial services industry. Ani is (as I write this) in a meeting with her manager trying for a redundancy payout. She is the only one who has not been offered one, we believe on the grounds that she has been there for thirteen years. I think he would struggle to come up with the money to pay her.

 

UPDATE:::::::::::::::::

I was right! She just called me and he said he couldn’t afford to pay her a redundancy, and that it was no longer in his hands! What a cop-out! However, bless his soul; he said that if she wanted to look for another job he would give her a good reference. What a low act that is! After sticking with him through all the bad times, he can’t even consider the fact she is struggling with a large family, bills and stress. Poor him, how can he live with himself, how will he cope with all his houses, his monthly overseas trips and……. I’m sorry, I’m being ridicules, and I’m just so upset about all this.

 

I guess, if there is anything good happening, Rae (my sister) is flying me to the Gold Coast next Friday for a surprise party. Its mums 60th and I can’t wait to see her face when she sees me sitting there lol! I’m only going for the weekend and will be back on Sunday. Also Nurse Vee as you may know her from open diary is coming to stay for another week! She was here just before Christmas for Ani’s 30th and this time is bringing her two girls for a visit. Later in the month both she and Loran (Bella), also from OD are coming to celebrate Vee’s birthday! They have become such good friends and we get to see a lot of them these days. Ani and I love them very much and we can’t wait!

 

I’ve put some new pics up below, take care of you all, miss you heaps and I will let you know how things pan out in the next few weeks.

 

I Love You Guys!

Luke xoxoxo