9. Point me to Childcare

Welcome back to Stethoscopes and Strollers! In this episode, we discuss how to effectively use credit card points for flying in childcare help. If you're a physician mom this strategy can be a game-changer.

Episode Highlights:

• The Power of Points: Learn how to maximize your credit card points for flights, hotels, and more, with a special shout-out to Devon Gimbel’s "Point Me to First Class for Women Physicians" group.
• Flying in Childcare: Discover how I use points to fly in trusted family members to help with childcare. This approach has provided invaluable support for vacations, emergencies, and more.
• Balancing Travel and Family: Discussing the importance of prioritizing your marriage and self-care by ensuring reliable childcare through creative solutions like using points for flights.

Key Messages:

• Maximize Your Spending: As physician moms with higher-than-average expenses, using credit card points can offer substantial rewards. 
• Childcare Solutions: When local help isn't available, consider flying in family members. 
• Prioritize Self-Care and Relationships: By securing reliable childcare, you can focus on your marriage, personal time, and career without added stress.

Discussion Points:

• Real-life Examples: I share how I’ve flown in my mother-in-law and sister using points to assist with childcare during vacations and busy times.
• Community Support: Emphasizing the importance of creating a support network, whether through local resources or by bringing in family from afar.
• Practical Tips: Simple steps to get started with credit card points, and how joining the "Point Me to First Class" group can provide invaluable tips and strategies.

Maximizing your use of credit card points can seem daunting, but with the right approach, it’s entirely achievable. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, I offer private coaching to help you navigate this process and tailor solutions to your specific needs.

Get Started:

Register here for ✨Finding the Right Fit: Au Pair Essentials for Physician Moms✨ on August 15th at 3 PM ET/12 PM PT. Find, and keep, the right Au Pair for you and your family!

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Transcript

 Let's talk about credit card points. Now, I don't know about you, but I am in the point me to first class for women physicians group. Shout out to Devon Gimbel, I was actually in the point game for a long time before I found that group, but I definitely did not maximize my point usage like the physicians in there do.

And I still don't. And that's what I want to talk about today. So if you go in there, it can be quite overwhelming. The information is good, but it's a lot of acronyms, a lot, it's a lot of work, right? And I could definitely understand if people don't want to get involved in it, but I agree with her on the one big point that as physicians, as physician moms, we tend to have higher than average expenses and you might as well get rewarded for the money you're already spending. And that means using your credit card points, right? So if you are spending money on anything,  get a credit card, don't do cash back, get points, and then use them for flights, hotels, whatever else.

But in this context, we are talking about flights, and very specifically, flights for childcare. Yes, indeed, I am talking about flying in your childcare if you don't have anybody nearby. This may sound extreme, but I'll tell you that is what we do, and we have been doing it for years. And if you remember my postpartum story when I said, My sister came up to help my mom with the kids when I took my sabbatical from motherhood to Mexico. 

We paid for her ticket and we pay for it with points. Anytime we go on a vacation that does not involve the kids, which is most of them, we fly out my mother-in-law so she can watch the kids for us. my mother in law's ticket paid for with points. We live in a united hub area,  so the redemption value is not great, but The value of how these points are used are in the eye of the beholder, right? 

If I'm not getting 16 cents per point, and I'll leave you to go into the points group to figure out exactly what that means, I am not upset about that because The childcare that I'm getting is invaluable, right? And this is not in replacement of my au pair or any other additional childcare I may have.

It is just to have that buffer person for the off times, for the weekends, for the nights. So my au pair will still be working. It's actually a pretty sweet gig for my mother-in-law. The au pair is still working all of her hours. She's just there while the kids are sleeping. She gets To spend time with her grandchildren and she does us a solid and my husband and I get to go on vacation Without kids and without worrying about how they are being taken care of And just so you know, we fly her out business class. She is very comfortable coming out here to help us out. We try to make things as easy as possible for her because we truly value the gift that she is giving us.  So I mentioned before this podcast is all about expanding your mind to different possibilities. 

And I really want you to consider if you are like me if you are like a lot of physician moms where you have moved away from family for this career, you moved for training, you moved for your attending job, your partner's training or job, there's a good chance that you are far away from family and If you were closer, you would not have as many childcare issues.

You would have more <TAG> in general.  And having that community, having the childcare help doesn't only mean hiring a nanny or hiring an au pair or making your community. So you have people to call on when you need babysitters, backups, and all of those things. It can also mean flying in a trusted family member, who is going to watch your kids for a period of time so you can do whatever it is you need to do. We choose to use it for travel because  travel is a huge part of our lives and  I am one of those people where I want travel to be part of my children's lives, but when they are old enough to really appreciate it.

And my marriage is very high on my priority list after myself. It's my marriage, then the kids. So that involves my husband and I getting away for periods of time and focusing on us. So in July. When my very good friend from residency is having her birthday party in the Caribbean, we will be in Anguilla, sans kids. And my mother-in-law will be flewed out to California, to be here with the children. And I will fly her out from New Jersey. I will fly my sisters up from Trinidad.  Whatever I need to do, because even though I do have a community here, It's different, you know when I talk about the hours that I need and exactly the length of time that we need, it is actually easier for us to have somebody else come in from a different state.

So, I suggest you join the Point Me to First Class group and no, I am not paid by Devon. She doesn't even know who I am.  , there's no benefit to me. The benefit will be all yours. Like I said, it can be a little bit overwhelming. But the simplest information you need to know is you are already spending money, get a card that gives you points that you can use for flights.

Okay? And if you're like, I don't know where to start, I, this, this group is too much, then, I can definitely help you out. It's one of the many things that I help my clients with, with private coaching. So, go ahead, in the show notes on my website, to schedule a free coaching call and let's talk about how we can set up your childcare at all different levels, which may include Flying somebody out. All right. So if you found this helpful, go ahead and share this episode with another physician mom who is in the early years of motherhood. Don't forget to leave us a five-star rating and if you're an Apple podcast leave us a five-star review it really helps get the word out and reach other physician moms who are in these early stages and want to go through it with confidence, joy, community, and support.

All right, see you on the next episode of Stethoscopes and Strollers.