I'd outsource A LOT if I had the funds. But I don't, so we just rarely clean That said, I enjoy cooking, DH likes yard work, my boys love washing the cars...

Can I outsource my commute??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not as much as your boss is. Doing household work makes me feel human and grounded.

Sitting on the floor with both my babies in my lap while I read them as DH is playing piano makes me feel human and grounded. If we didn't have twice-a-week cleaning, I wouldn't have time for that.

PP here. I agree. And we have a cleaning person, as well - I don't insist on doing everything myself. But the day I pay someone to sew a button back on my jacket is the day I turn in my humanity card. Just thinking about that makes me want to weep.

LOL. I just paid $20 to have 8 buttons resewn on my winter coat. I thought of doing it myself, but realized I didn't have the correct thread (they are extra-heavy buttons, so the standard thread wasn't going to work), or a needle that would work with this extra thread. I live in DC so I realized I'd probably have to drive out to the suburbs to get said implements, and when weighing all the time and effort, $20 looked like a steal.

It's interesting, when my kids were younger, I had a babysitter pick up all the time from nursery school to about 3rd grade. Then, I realized as my kids got older they did not want a babysitter or nanny picking them up. They wanted me, their mom, to do pick up. Thankfully, I have a flexible job that allows me to leave when I need to pick up my kids or go to their sports games at school. It extends the quality time when we are riding home together and I can hear about their day. I find myself stopping at Chipotle and Subway more for food but as long as we are together, I don't really mind. At the private school they attend, I notice most kids are picked up by their parents. I also think as children get older parents need to stick closer to them to make sure they are not getting into trouble or with the wrong crowd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not as much as your boss is. Doing household work makes me feel human and grounded.

Sitting on the floor with both my babies in my lap while I read them as DH is playing piano makes me feel human and grounded. If we didn't have twice-a-week cleaning, I wouldn't have time for that.

PP here. I agree. And we have a cleaning person, as well - I don't insist on doing everything myself. But the day I pay someone to sew a button back on my jacket is the day I turn in my humanity card. Just thinking about that makes me want to weep.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we were kids, my parents had a housekeeper. She came in every day and did some cleaning, laundry, cooking, shopping for groceries, other errands, and watched us after school. We carpooled to our activities. My mom did come to our dr. appts. and to the occasional school function. My father never did any of that stuff. I'm not sure how much she made exactly but I would imagine you could get someone to do that now for about 45-50k.

Yes no biggie, most of us have enough money to hire a person for 50k / year.

np. There are a lot of rich people in this area. I'm sure there are people posting on this board with a similar set up.

Well your cash liquidity obviously factors into this decision. When we have the extra cash, we outsource some of the cooking - 2 dinners a week + work lunches, but that's mostly it. We could afford a monthly deep cleaning service but just haven't bothered to arrange it - you know finding service providers you can trust is a time investment in itself. I'm picky about things, don't easily trust strangers to come into our home, etc so I'd have to do a lot of vetting before outsourcing the cleaning and driving.

Anonymous wrote:Not as much as your boss is. Doing household work makes me feel human and grounded.

That's how I feel about gardening and lawn mowing.

If I had the money, I'd outsource a lot and feel no guilt. Anything related to cleaning, errands, upkeep of house and car etc. things that would free up time and energy for my kids.

I can't wait for the day that I can outsource the lawn mowing to my son...

Anonymous wrote:Not as much as your boss is. Doing household work makes me feel human and grounded.

Sitting on the floor with both my babies in my lap while I read them as DH is playing piano makes me feel human and grounded. If we didn't have twice-a-week cleaning, I wouldn't have time for that.

Not as much as your boss is. Doing household work makes me feel human and grounded.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is "concierge service" at a physician's office? Is there actually a price you can pay to be a VIP? With preferential treatment?

All the other outsourcing - do what works for you!

But if "concierge service" means paying a special fee so that you can oust some other sick person from having a prime appointment slot, that's not cool. Not blaming you, OP, but I am blaming the physician who set this up. And I sure hope I'm wrong.

yes and its getting VERY popular with the area pediatric practices...not sure how i feel about it

Really - which pediatricians do this? That just seems wrong.

My understanding is that concierge service means that there's one doctor who has only say, 20-24 patients total -- and this doctor is at the disposal of his or her small group of patients, who pay a large set amount per year (kind of like a retainer fee). The doctor does house calls, arranges for tests, etc. At least that's what I've heard based on reading about this in newspapers/magazines -- I've never actually met anyone who does this.

Many doctors do this now especially since insurance has gotten terrible in the recent years. It mostly the top doctors who would rather not deal with insurance and patients will stick with them.

If we had more money I'd have someone clean once a week - but I really enjoy cooking, shopping at the grocery store, and mowing my own lawn. I'd also love to have a baby sitter once a week so my husband and I could have date night.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is "concierge service" at a physician's office? Is there actually a price you can pay to be a VIP? With preferential treatment?

All the other outsourcing - do what works for you!

But if "concierge service" means paying a special fee so that you can oust some other sick person from having a prime appointment slot, that's not cool. Not blaming you, OP, but I am blaming the physician who set this up. And I sure hope I'm wrong.

yes and its getting VERY popular with the area pediatric practices...not sure how i feel about it

Really - which pediatricians do this? That just seems wrong.

My understanding is that concierge service means that there's one doctor who has only say, 20-24 patients total -- and this doctor is at the disposal of his or her small group of patients, who pay a large set amount per year (kind of like a retainer fee). The doctor does house calls, arranges for tests, etc. At least that's what I've heard based on reading about this in newspapers/magazines -- I've never actually met anyone who does this.

Anonymous wrote:What is "concierge service" at a physician's office? Is there actually a price you can pay to be a VIP? With preferential treatment?

All the other outsourcing - do what works for you!

But if "concierge service" means paying a special fee so that you can oust some other sick person from having a prime appointment slot, that's not cool. Not blaming you, OP, but I am blaming the physician who set this up. And I sure hope I'm wrong.

yes and its getting VERY popular with the area pediatric practices...not sure how i feel about it