Having additional family member means a myriad of adjustments. One question that everybody seemed to be asking was "who will take care of the baby?" The first few months were alright, as I was in maternity leave and both grandmas were more than willing to take turns to help babysit.
In the long run, our options are only limited to using infant care, hiring a nanny, and hiring a maid, if I want to continue working, that is. The 4-month long leave (the longest I've ever had during my stay in the workforce) made me decide that being a stay-at-home-mum is not my call. Being cooped up in the house for too long is not good for my sanity.
And so we began our quest to search for the maid.
We're fine with either Indonesian or Filipino ones. We contacted quite a number of agencies and all of them cited Hari Raya holiday as a reason why it's difficult to get Indonesian ones. So we interviewed some Filipino candidates. Only then, we were told that we needed to sign a contract with the embassy that the maid would be paid a minimum of SGD600. And a minimum of one day off. Even if the contract said otherwise. In other words, the maid could just sue us as and when she felt like it.
Filipino maids were crossed off the list. Left with Indonesian ones, we did some more rounds of interview. Most of them couldn't make it. We then decided to take a maid from an agency in Katong Mall and paid a reservation fee of $50. When we returned the next day, we asked the agency if she'd cleared her medical checkup. Only then, in a hush voice, they told us that the maid had "mild pregnancy" and should be fine after it's "cleared". Are you kidding me? Case closed, we canceled our reservation. Luckily we got our $50 back although we wasted a good few hours there.
An ex-colleague recommended a good agency in our neighborhood to me, so we went there. We took a transfer maid recommended to us as she fits the bill. We brought her home on 4th Sep, and she did quite well in house chores, although sometimes I needed to repeat my instructions.
After two weeks, she told me that her right wrist was swollen. According to her, during her last employment, a suitcase fell on her hand. It was already healed after some western and TCM medication, but now it suddenly swelled again. We took her to a 24-hour clinic as it was a Saturday. Spent $61. The doctor advised her to be back on Monday if it's still swollen.
On Monday, we're back to the clinic. The doctor made referral letter for A&E dept in TTSH. Off we went. Did registration, some waiting, payment, some waiting, x-ray, some waiting, consultation, some waiting, appointment booking. Spent another $90. Nothing wrong was found in the x-ray result. Some standard medications were prescribed, exactly like what's been given by the 24-hour clinic.
During this ordeal, she said that her hand was really painful, so she didn't work. She stayed in her room sleeping most of the time, if she's not out in the toilet or taking her food. It's worse than running a free hotel, I tell you.
We returned her to the agency the next day.
And now we are still in our quest to find the maid.
And I'm supposed to report back to work next Monday.
9 comments:
my goodness. what a pain! is it difficult to get one without an agency? just wondering if you can import someone your mom knows from indo. mild pregnancy... what the heck!
getting one without agency is possible but quite troublesome. we'll need to take the risk of bringing them here only to return them if they failed their english test.
yeah, apparently there's such thing as "mild pregnancy" :p
It is better to have someone watching the maid also as some maid will bad treat the baby when baby cries or difficult to handle. Will your mum or ur grand mum stay to watch the maid?
only for the first few months.
wah nob, my first rule of thumb is STAY AWAY FROM MAID, especially indonesian one, I had never trust them (even though allegedly some of us got a really good one). Gw denger2 yang filipino lebih mahal tapi mereka lebih ethical.
I am a product of "maid-mother", I learn to lie, being lazy and spoilt brat, simply because I spend most of my time with maid and not with my parents (nyak babe kerja 9-7 everyday, jem 8 gw da bobo ye). Luckly, my grandmother saved me, and undone all the curse before it's all too late :-)
Another thing is, I believe never try to "save" on childcare, simply because "you get what you paid for" - well at least that what happen in UK. Remember they are stranger who had no feeling, attachment nor obligation to love and care for your boy the way you do, and for that "money" is the exchange. At least, don't take the younger ones, who still single or looking for bf, never had children, have no mother instict, and probably care no less than to get her wage by the end of the month.
so are you saying the best solution is for me to stay at home?
both of my parents worked too, and I lived with maid(s) at home. all the way till I left for singapore. thankfully I didn't learn the bad habits :)
ga la nob, kalo bisa dapet yang "qualified" buat jaga anak sih itu very good option. Infant care gimana di sg? mahal tak?
Eh foto2nya babynya banyakan donk :-)))) demen liatnya!
infant care is relatively more expensive than child care. but even if I were to accept the risk of him getting sick more often, those infant cares are usually so fully booked they didn't even allow me to get a place in their waiting list. yes, waiting list.
wah gile juga yah... can't even get to the waiting list!
Ok, gw tunggu more baby pics nya ya :-))))
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