The end of the phase with a house helper

A very belated post on how we are taking care of our kids ourselves now without an external helper.

 

After having a maid at home for nearly 6 yrs, we have finally decided to manage things on our own.

Of course this could only be done with DiMi's agreement as a bulk of the burden would be on them to take care of the kids when we r at work.

 

So when we found out that Erma's passport expires much earlier than her visa (visa and contract expires in Nov 2014 but passport expires in mid Aug 2014), we decided to bite the bullet and just not renew her. Of course there was a push factor where the maid was in the comfort zone.. getting lazy, showing temper, etc and she herself told us she wanted to go home coz it was 'bored' working with us. Dearie and I almost couldnt believe what we heard. Bored?? She has 2 very independant little kids to look after, doesnt need to cook, doesnt need to had wash clothes, only cleans my house once a week, goes for holidays with us and eats out with us several times a week.. with all these good life.. that silly lady said she is BORED and so she wants to leave. Can u imagine that? She told some stories that her grandma was having some terminal illness and requests to go home earlier instead of waiting till her expiry of passport in Aug. So since she already didnt have the heart to stay with us and we couldnt stand the sight of her long face every day, we sent her back in mid July. So there goes another one.

 

Frankly, I feel very good for not having an outsider in the house. Yes, chores are difficult and time needs to be planned well. But I no longer need to live in fear that there is an outsider in the house that we need to be wary off.

 

Out of these 6 yrs.. we have had 4 maids. Ony 1 served full term. To just keep myself reminded of who stayed with us.. here r the list:
1) Ruhyati (Yati) from Indonesia - considered as the most pleasant of them all. Had to leave after q year coz she failed her 2nd year Fomema test. Her heart size enlarged due to reasons that we are not aware.
2) At Sochan (Sue) from Cambodia - the one who didnt know how to read ABC or even 123, didnt speak a single word of English and had a child back home to feed (divorced from husband). A really brave woman that would do all she could to give a better life for her child. It was difficult with Sue at first as communication was a huge problem. I had to draw what we wanted her to do for us. She was a very very obedient girl.. working solely to get money to raise her child. And because her family was so poor, they didnt have mobile phones for her to call home to. And because she doesnt know how to write (even in Khmer), she almost totally didnt contact her family throughout her stay with us. At the end of the 2nd year with us, at the same time where Jyn was a new born, we tried asking her to stay and extend her contract. We knew she had the intension to. Unfortunately, when she wanted to call home to check with her family, she couldnt find any tel number to reach them. All the numbers that she had with her were terminated. She got so worried and so decided to go home. She called us after arriving safely and informed that all tel lines were cut coz they had no money to foot the bills. Sue was also the only one that called back during the following year's CNY to wish me happy CNY. When the 3rd maid had issues and we had to look for a new one, I tried calling Sue via the number she called me but to no avail. I hope she is living happily with her son .. she definately deserves a good life.
3) Lourdes Gamalong (Desy) from Philipines - worst of the group. Caught to be pregnant when doing the 2nd year Fomema. Verdict was she went out of our house in the wee hours to meet some Myanmar workers where she met at Giant while my parents brought her shopping. Blardy cheapskate!
4) Erma Ugay (Erma) from Philipines - served 1.5 years. The prettiest of the loot. One of the smartest also. Too smart for her own good. Thinks that she would be able to meet good employers everywhere. Good luck to u then.

 

There we go. 4 came and gone.

Now its all up to us. I am sure we can do it. Well, its almost 3 months down the road now and we're doing well. I can see that Mi is very busy but she looks happy coz the sweet little kids know exactly what to do to melt grandma's heart. Grandpa too is very hands on and is all smiley faced every time the kids go back on weekdays. I so know that they sacrifice alot of their time to take care of the kids ... if they didnt had to, they could be out enjoying with friends or do the things they like to do. I just hope its not overly taxing on them. Even Xzan is doing extra to help.. getting home early whenever she can to help feed the kids dinner, washing them up and putting on PJs for them, keeping them occupied so that we can get some work done and just basically being the kids' favourite person at home aka the santarina! Haha

 

As for us at home.. Dearie has been a real angel. If not because of him that shares the load at home.. I would have gone crazy trying to juggle work and mop and sweep and iron and wash and fold and upkeep. Work isnt get any easier and is not exactly a bed of roses for either one of us... but I do very strongly believe that so long we stay as 1, we will be able to go through all challenges and see the rainbow after the storm.