Having a baby in Tenerife. Advice needed about work.

[Lee_K_00]

Hello all!...

Moved here back in April and love being here! But since found out that i'm to become a dad! Which I am really excited about! But left with a bit of a dilemma...
At the minute i'm working in a family bar, both me and my girlfriend, but the job itself (working hours and pay) aren't really going to be suitable once the baby is born and neither is the place were staying, (with family). So ideally i'd like to find a job working an average amount of hours each week (around 40), with a guaranteed wage so that I know I can afford to pay bills and put bread on the table... But is this even possible!? I have spent the last couple of weeks looking but all jobs seem to be commission based! Which is no good when you have a baby to care for!
I'm a joiner by trade and thought about going self employed, but right now my main priority is to get a suitable guaranteed income. I'm not fussy about the job and i'm hard working and a quick learner. But what are the chances of finding something? I understand the longer i'm here for the more chance I have of finding something but I want to try and sort as much out as I can now, rather than leaving it to last minute.
So do I move back to miserable England (where I know I can find work), or stick it out and hope something comes up?
Also, if I do manage to find a suitable job, what's it like here for expats, in regards to having a baby and such? From what I gather there isn't a MotherCare shop, but is everything still easily available?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!...

[TIS]

Well Lee_K_00, I at least, will wish you well on the forthcoming birth of your baby/babies - do you know it is a singleton or more?

We were fortunate to have had twins, born here on 1 August 2007 at the Green Clinic / Hospiten Sur, so we know a substantial amount about the trials and tribulations of the associated paperwork involved etc. At the end of the day the important thing is that they are fit and healthy and Mum copes well with their birth too.

If you have any questions on specific issues then by all means PM or e-mail me.

As to the job situation, yep, it's a toughy. Understandably a lot of businesses are reluctant to commit to employing new staff until they can feel more certain about the pickup in the economy in general. This is where the strength of the laws protecting the employees does more harm than good and stifles new businesses at birth. Can you not find a commission based employment that can be run in conjunction with your existing job, or maybe that can be done from home over the internet? Wish you well with your search in this also.

[ali marshall]

Congratulations!!! The most important thing for you and your partner is having a job with a contract.To be registered on the spanish health system either you or your partner will need a contract,this will mean your baby will get free injections and check ups etc.I had a friend who had twins and had to return to the uk because neither of them had contracts and could not get a doctor,and sadly they just could not afford the injection prices.

As for baby items,there is a shop called bambini in san isidro,as you come off the motorway in to the town,it is half way up the main road on the left hand side.Some things are resonable some are not.May be worth setting up ebay account for smaller things as most sellers will send to here.

There is also a shop on the road behind the church square in los cristianos,half way along on the left hand side.
1 other shop i know of is where the cinema is in las americas,it is the shoping centre down the road from the stadium,drive down from the stadium as its on your left,the shoppping centre is near the bottom of the street on the right,you can see the adverts for films outside,go down the stairs and the shop is there.

Think you will find bambini best shop out of them all though.For clothes i would get a cheap flight over to gc to primark.You proberly could get a years worth of clothes for half the price of here,make sure you have your residence for the flight discount.I payed 30 euro return with bintercanaries.

As for the hospitals,i had my son in the green clinic and i am going to be honest i was disgusted with the care i received.If your not private it is a totally different kind of care.I was refused any pain killers,trying to sleep was like sleeping on the tf1.Took them 4 hours to bring a bottle as only 1 nurse on night duty.Also i was not on a maternity ward,i was speaking to other english lady and her 70 husband was on the ward for a hip operation.I found it very uncomfortable when he seems to keep looking over the ward while i was trying to breast feed my son.Hence i discharged myself after the 1st night and was physically exhausted and the other 2 girls i shared the room with,had no respect that i had been awake all night giving birth,pretty hard to sleep while 12 other people are having a fiesta in your room,my son was wrapped up like he was outside in snow and even had been put in a outfit with a tie round his neck,i soon took all that off,maybe never never heard of the dangers of over heating a baby can cause cot death.

Looking back i wish i had gone candaleria heard many people praise the hospital,also most important thing is they do even supply gas and air lol.The hospital is know to be one of the best hospitals in europe,so i would recommend it and always if there is something hospital sur cannot deal with they seem to send you up the north anyway.

As for work you just have to ask about,the longer you are hear the easier it becomes and its word of mouth.Problem at the minute is tenerife is so quiet ,jobs are hard to come by,if i do hear of anything i will pm you.Anyway goodluck and if i can help more please ask.

[Lee_K_00]

Thanks for the replies! It's nice to hear from other people who have been through it. I'll let you both know how things pan out. But at the minute it's looking like a move back to England is on the cards...

[TIS]

Agree with Ali about Bambini - great shop and the staff in there know the products and are really helpful in expaling how they work or how they are fitted. Always feels like a personal service.

There is new shop opening up just down the road from them. Not sure how keen their prices will be, but definately worth a look.

For us, maybe becasue it was under Private Health insurance, the Green Clinic were brilliant - even the food was hot for the couple of nights I stayed in with my partner when the kids were born.

Buying stuff on e-bay is a must or talking to people like us as we still have loads of excellant condition cloths, equipment and toys ready to pass onto discerning parents. "The Boss" is brilliant at buying designer kiddy clothes, from e-bay, often with tags and prices still attached ( so you know they are brand new) but for silly silly prices. Osh Kosh (not sure if I have spelt this correctly) jeans - price on tag £28, price to us 2.99€ plus postage of 1.99€ I could write realms of examples but you get the picture. Get an ebay account and learn how to shop on there.

[uptowngirl]

www.mothercare.com deliver a lot of products over here........................

There is also www.mothercare.es

I had the munchkin in The Ramblas in Santa Cruz. Private yes, but I chose there as if there was a problem, It meant we were only minutes away from the babycare unit in Candelaria. Found the Ramblas absolutely fantastic!!!

www.debenhams.com also deliver here which is great when the blue cross sale is on!! www.amazon.co.uk is great for prams too!!! You can claim the VAT back on all products as we are Non-eu..................... also great loads of other stuff on there such as bottles, infact, virtually everything you need

I also can highly recommend BROTHER MAX products!!!

AND you can get a subscription of Mother and Baby sent over here too!!

Good Luck

[Lee_K_00]

Ah well it makes everything seem a lot easier knowing all this! Thanks for all the replies, it's much appreciated!

Unfortunately though still no work!

[EDIT]: Also, when ordering things online, how does delivery work? Our post seem's to be a bit hit and miss at times! Is there anywhere to collect from? Like a central office?

[KirstyJay]

My advice is to get everything second hand. For the amount of time you use it for, it really is not worth shelling out tons of cash. Watch the forum for sale listings to get some bargains :)

Save your cash for when they start asking for Nintendos and smartphones... It comes sooner than you think! :eek:

[bonitatime]

I have to say if you have no real job and don't speak Spanish my thought as hard as it seems is go home.
Having a little one is hard and here it is harder as there is no comunity nursing after the birth etc. You are almost completely on your own.
You say you have family here will they help as this would make things easier. I am also not clear how old you both are but a bar job and a baby really don't mix easily. I love it here and am loath to say to someone the best thing is to go but if you have no real base here I would be inclined to do so.
No ideas about baby stuff as family bought all mine until they were about 5. (very lucky I know)
If you decide to stay don't hesitate to come back here and ask things. There is a great thread on the old forum, (at the top of this one) that talks about where what and how of giving birth on Tenerife. There is loads of great advice there.

[Lee_K_00]

Yeah I feel like Tenerife has so much more to offer than England in the long run. But if a job doesn't come up soon then the right thing to do would be to head back to England unfortunately!... Everything just came at a wrong time really! I've been learning myself Spanish since I come here and have been picking it up quite well and have surprised myself at how quick. But I dont want to take the chance of staying here too long for nothing else to come up and then have a mad rush of heading back to England and trying to sort things out there! So we'll see what happens!...

Thanks for the support!

[missSJ]

Hi, Good luck to Lee,
I am also having a baby and was wondering if anyone knows if there is any child benefit over here? I know they´ve done away with the 2500 euros they used to give when a baby was born but is there anything else? How do spanish families manage, with baby stuff being more expensive and generally the wages are quite low?
Thanks

[bonitatime]

Families help and if you have a very low income there is child benefit

[lozzie1821]

Hi, Good luck to Lee,
I am also having a baby and was wondering if anyone knows if there is any child benefit over here? I know they´ve done away with the 2500 euros they used to give when a baby was born but is there anything else? How do spanish families manage, with baby stuff being more expensive and generally the wages are quite low?
Thanks

hi.
Since doing away with the 2500 i do know for sure they give % of what you earn each month to help towards childcare etc... so the better your job the higher the amount will be... i had a part time contract and got 26e a month where as my friend was on a full time contract and got 100e a month....

i am still receiving the 250e every 6months for my daughter (can anyone confirm whether this stops at 3yrs old or 16 yrs old??) my daughter was born in 2009 so i was lucky enough to receive the 2500 and the 1000e pay out..

LEE- Congratulations on becoming a dad... I had my daughter here in Tenerife, I will have to disagree with Ali on this one, Hospiten sur i would recommend to anyone wanting to give birth here, i cant fault them at all.. they where totally on the ball in my opinion and due to high blood pressure i had to stay in for a week rather than the average 3 days.... The nurses where great and the women who look after the babies were really friendly too.
what i did find is the younger girls where happy to give me options on the best way to do things whereas the elder ladies wanted everything done the natural old fashioned way....

Bambini is great for baby stuff BUT what i would suggest is if you can buy things second hand - youll be amazed how quickly babies grow out of things.. I bought a moses basket my daughter was in it for 6weeks.... pointless!!! Clothes as a new mum i couldnt resist buying her new bits and what happend whe she was here? she hardly wore the stuff and by the time i got it out for her it was to small or tight.....

you will find yourself lots of bargains on here if you keep an eye out.......

[ali marshall]

Lozzie1821 was you private at the green clinic,because nobody at any point came to help look after the my baby.I sat in blood covered sheets for 24 hours and ended up throwing then on the floor as i was so angry they did not change them.

My mum is a nurse and i phoned her to say i still had a intravenous line in and the the bag was empty for hours,and the wheel was opened which means i could caught any infections.At one point they said it needed to stay there if i needed it again,i had to tell them, that it had been in my arm too long and they was exposing me to infection,if they did not remove i would do it myself.

I was refused any pain killers and told not to scream lol hmmm .Took 4 hours to give my son a bottle of milk and when i was in labour at midnight,they refused my partner to sit with me till about 5.00 am only because i flipped out.Would not of minded but i was the only person on the labour ward.

Also if you have birth plan forget it,i had a tens machine which they said was not allowed,i was strapped down by 2 monitors,1 for contractions and one for baby heart beat,i could not walk about or move around at all.not trying to scare you but do not want anyone to go through what i did.

If it was me i would not take the risk of being treated like that and would go candaleria,one lady who was next to me had a poorly baby and she was transfered to candelaria with the baby because they deal with any major prolems.I think best place to be in the 1st place.

Added after 6 minutes:

Can i ask is the child benefit only if the mother has a contract,we got the 2500 when my son was born but told i was not entitled to benefit as i had no contract.I have never received any other money for my children from the system.

[uptowngirl]

you only receive child benefit of 100 euros a month if you are actively working.

[KirstyJay]

you only receive child benefit of 100 euros a month if you are actively working.and only until the child is 3 years old. Mine ended 3 years ago :)

[lozzie1821]

Lozzie1821 was you private at the green clinic,because nobody at any point came to help look after the my baby.I sat in blood covered sheets for 24 hours and ended up throwing then on the floor as i was so angry they did not change them.

My mum is a nurse and i phoned her to say i still had a intravenous line in and the the bag was empty for hours,and the wheel was opened which means i could caught any infections.At one point they said it needed to stay there if i needed it again,i had to tell them, that it had been in my arm too long and they was exposing me to infection,if they did not remove i would do it myself.

I was refused any pain killers and told not to scream lol hmmm .Took 4 hours to give my son a bottle of milk and when i was in labour at midnight,they refused my partner to sit with me till about 5.00 am only because i flipped out.Would not of minded but i was the only person on the labour ward.

Also if you have birth plan forget it,i had a tens machine which they said was not allowed,i was strapped down by 2 monitors,1 for contractions and one for baby heart beat,i could not walk about or move around at all.not trying to scare you but do not want anyone to go through what i did.

If it was me i would not take the risk of being treated like that and would go candaleria,one lady who was next to me had a poorly baby and she was transfered to candelaria with the baby because they deal with any major prolems.I think best place to be in the 1st place.

Added after 6 minutes:

Can i ask is the child benefit only if the mother has a contract,we got the 2500 when my son was born but told i was not entitled to benefit as i had no contract.I have never received any other money for my children from the system.

I was private yes but i know people who have had children without being on private who are also in agreement it has a fantastic place to give birth...
Obviously every birth and situation is different thought.

When i went to granadilla for the paper work i was given differnt forms for the 2500, 1000 and the 250 every six months. I wasnt working at the time i received any of these.
I only received the % of my wage when i worked.. depending on the contract depends how much you get, dont count on it being 100e that isn't the case..
I have not been able 2 receive anything for my son because he was born during a holiday in cyprus (premature)..

I believe Hospiten Sur and Candelaria are just as good eachother so i wouldn worry if you are taken or suggested either, do what best suits you and your partner... also bear in mind... all the top surgeons of Candelaria come down to the south to do procedures for those in the south..

[Lee_K_00]

Well I thought i'd update everyone like I said I would...
We've decided that the easiest thing for us right now is to move back to England. We have been to see the midwife back home and the girlfriend needs injections and stuff during the pregnancy and now that the ball is rolling back at home, it seems sensible to just carry on with things back there.
That's not the only reason though. As I mentioned before, financially I don't think we could manage! It seems to be impossible to find any kind of work right now that pays enough money everyweek. It seems to be that the majority of available jobs are based on commission and sales.
Also, the girlfriend isn't overly keen on being on her own once the baby is born when I am at work. Back at home we have a lot more family and friends there...
But anyways, i've enjoyed being here the last 5 months, and would of like to have made a good go of things had the situation been a little different! And maybe 1 day in the future we'll come back and try again!...
Thanks for all the help anyways!...

[bonitatime]

Good luck with everything and I hope you make it back here one day