Story about my maid, and how I manage without live-in help.

When my maid initially told me she did not intend to extend her WP but instead wanted to go back to Indonesia, I was in a panic.
Who was going to get the chores done?
Who was going to help out with the kids? Especially at meal times with family and friends?
Who was going to keep tabs on the perishables in the household?

However, when push comes to shove, you will somehow find your inner strength.
It's been a week without maid for us now.

On retrospect, I thought of the advantages of having live-in help, but also examined the cons of it.


Advantages of live-in help:

- Housework is taken care of, obviously.

- Can spend the time on kids instead of doing chores.

- Having an extra pair of hands at home who can help to receive parcels / deliveries / open door for groomer to pickup & dropoff Mavy / etc.


Disadvantages of live-in help:

Ever heard of the saying "Too many cooks spoil the soup"?
This is what happens when you have 3 women overseeing to the care of your children and household: my MIL, helper and I.
Whenever an instruction has to be passed down, it must be repeated at least twice to the different people. There is also miscommunication, the most common being "I dunno Mam, Ah Ma didn't tell me".
Sometimes, I feel that rather than instructing over and over, it would be faster to accomplish the task myself.


Initially, she was quite good in her work and attitude.
But subsequently, she started getting lazy and even started comparing with other maids on her off days (her friends / relatives who work as maids in Singapore).

- She told me her ex-employer would often drive her and another maid (they had 2 maids) up to KL where their 2nd property was.

- She also said her cousin, who has been working in a family in Singapore for 10 years, is very lucky as her employers bring her travelling on their family trips. Most recently to Hong Kong.

- She told my MIL that her friend, who just came to work in Singapore as a maid, is getting $500/mth with 1 day off per week.

- More things got damaged / lost in the span of her living with us than without.

- Detergents and soap get used up more quickly because she is quite wasteful.

In the grand scheme of things, such matter may seem trivial, but they can indeed be helluva annoying.



So how do I cope without a maid?
- I do the chores in instalments - when the kids are sleeping / when Andy is playing with them.

- I buy diapers / milk powder and household detergents in bulk so that I do not have to frequently keep tabs on them running out.

- Andy helps out in the night when we are all asleep because he sleeps late while I sleep early.

And introducing.... a mighty hardworking machine called Rainbow:

Child labour



Sucking every nook and corner

Rainbow comes equipped a special nozzle for washing of mattresses, and an assortment of other brushes / nozzles which have bristles made of horse hair.
Short of performing kinky favours, it pretty much does everything from mopping of floor to cleaning of mattress to purifying the air.