All About Full-Time Maids

[autumnbronze]

Andaiz:

but my pet peeve with her is that whenever we need to go out quickly etc, she'd get flustered (kan cheong spider! :!: ), listen wrongly then have to re-do. Hard to keep calm when we are rushing out but must try lah! :rant:

Same same, Andaiz.

She'll get all flustered too and will have this \"why didn't you tell me earlier\" look.

But I think over the almost 2 yrs, she's learnt to dela with it.

Andaiz, give your helper more time lah, think she'll get used to it

[leonardtay]

jennykhots:

leonardtay:

Hi all,


Currently my maid is going to be due in June 2010 and she will be extending for another 2 years. We intend to let her go on 2 weeks of home leave before she continues working again.

I would like to check if i should renew her passport now or after she comes back to Singapore, the expiry date is 2 June 2011.
We intend to let her go back in late May.

Will she have any problems coming back to Singapore?


I had an agency to help me renew my maid's passport 2 years back which costs me $450, I was pretty naive back then. (maid still with me). A friend took the maid personally & renew it at the Indonesian Embassy. BTW, please do not take passport photo before hand (they might reject), the Embassy will have their own standard photographer over there. Everything in I think was less than $200. I do agree that you need to keep aside 1 to 1 months' of pay for safekeeping.

Thanks

I do keep aside $500 of her pay for safekeeping.
I had checked out the fees for making passport. Go to embassy personally to renew passport will be $35, take photo $10, renew work permit online will be $10.
Agents quote me $400 for passport and $40 for WP.

[leonardtay]

carebear:

leonardtay:

Hi all,


Currently my maid is going to be due in June 2010 and she will be extending for another 2 years. We intend to let her go on 2 weeks of home leave before she continues working again.

I would like to check if i should renew her passport now or after she comes back to Singapore, the expiry date is 2 June 2011.
We intend to let her go back in late May.

Will she have any problems coming back to Singapore?

Thanks

Please make sure she has some deposit in terms of cash if you let her go on home leave and only renew her passport and work permit on her return.

My second maid asked me to renew her passport and she did not leave any deposit with me. She left for home leave of 1 month. On the day she was to return, she sms me and said she would not be coming back. Luckily i did not renew her passport and work permit as it requires one to buy the insurance as well when applying for the work permit.
So i lost on time, the amount paid for the return air ticket and the emotional stress, not to say the inconvenience of taking extra leave to wait for the new maid.
After that, subsequent maid if want to go on home leave means go back for good. If want to extend work permit, then cannot go on home leave.

So if i let my maid to go home and come back on the 28May will she have any problem entering Singapore as her WP expires on the 2June

[carebear]

leonardtay:

So if i let my maid to go home and come back on the 28May will she have any problem entering Singapore as her WP expires on the 2June

You can go to this website http://www.mom.gov.sg/publish/momportal/en/communities/work_pass/foreign_domestic_workers/renewal.html

The other option is to renew her permit for her 1st but you ask her to pay for the fees, then on return from home leave, you reimburse her the amount.
If she is Indonesian, the she needs to endorse her passport at the embassy. This can be done by yourself, or authorize a 3rd party to do it for you.

[Piggymum]

Oh haha Peapot soulmate : ) Mine is from Chin but worked in Yangon for a year. Her bio-data states that she has worked for 3 yrs and took care of 4 kids. All bxx-sxxt! She work for only a yr and has never taken care of any kids. I know all bio-data are fake but didn’t expect it to be so super fake. Her English is cannot make it one but like many parents have mentioned, when we tell jokes, she will also laugh!


With the way she works, I would send her away at once if I need her to help out with my children. Her heart and mind are not here. Everyday give me that no strength look although she get to take afternoon nap and eat more than us. Water can be all over the floor and she can just walk pass it without necessary action! I gave her and went through a list of Dos & Don’ts plus work schedule with her but …sigh…I still need to nag and nag at her until I am so tired. Oh, and she likes to place things (plates, cups etc) at the edge of a table when there is plenty of space at the centre of the table. Told her so many times and yet did it again this a.m. :x

Thanks for sharing about the email thing. I have created another gmail a/c for her. Will re-send the email tonight. She has a M1 calling card but said doesn’t know how to use it. Told her I will go to the public phone with her on weekend to try again. My previous maid settled the calling part herself. I would post her letters whenever she wanted to send letter home. I paid for her postage.

[peapot]

Oh dear Piggymum, are you still holding onto this maid? If you need to remind so many times, you need to ask her to write down in the book. Tell her if she forgets again, you will also forget her salary!!


For the phone, why don’t you use your hp to call? The calling card is quite safe to use if you use your handphone. Going to a public phone is too much hassle. You can keep the calling card. There is a pin number in the calling card which you must key in before you can make a call out.

Yes bio-data are so fake. Mine says she works in Myanmar as maid before but in actual fact she was a waitress. English also equally bad. I m transferring her out because she can’t handle kids. She can only work in families without children.

I m getting an Indo maid for the first time, very worried too. About witchcraft. Heard they can perform witchcraft even without holding any of your personal items.

[raynreg]

Hi Peapot, how do you intend to commuicate with your Indon helper. I’m also comptemplating to change to Indon helper but we don’t speak their language and am afraid that mis-communication only makes things worst. My agency is not willing to bring in fresh Indon helpers as the "quality" has been deterioriating.

[minnie2004]

Hi raynreg, that’s why we only stick with filipino maids as we can’t communicate with Indon maids. At one point we thought of switching to Indon maids thinking they’d be more hard working but it’s difficult to find one who speaks reasonably good Eng. I know some people who can communicate with them in malay but we we don’t speak any malay.

[jennykhots]

I am more determine to renew my current maid’s WP after seeing so much unhappiness from mummies with new maids. My friends & most pp told me that maids of 5 years & above think they are "experienced & superior" so will have a mind of their own & refused to adhere to changes. My mum, especially kept saying that her heart has flown back home since her WP expires 02 Dec 10. But then again, who doesn’t want more money, retiring at 34 already? old age for a maid but too young to stop work. (btw she TT all her salary back and has bought a house & 2 plots of land planting cocoa tree)New maids will also be too stuck up or playing dumb to be sent home. Perhaps, to be able to travel on a plane & have a passport stamped "Singapore" are a novelty to these maids. It was never their intention to stay long.


I would like to do a review of my maid and perhaps it will give some enlightenment to mummies with maids .

My maid is from Lampung, Indonesia, & have worked with my family for 5 years.

Her good qualities :

1. seldom sick, not counting the monthly cycle whereby I think most would agree that the maid would seem to be in a daze, lethargic & forgetful. Took advice from a mummy to let her call home & things have been good then. I was too busy with my kids’ CA & neglected her homesickness. I should put it in my diary & let he call back on the 15th & 3oth like a devoted Buddhist :Only took her to GP once from food poisoning,

2. not greedy, I am not a careless person but with some many clothes, jewellery around and loose change around, other maids might just bet that I will forget about the item. I once suspected her from taking a necklance which ended up it was in between a magazine in my bedroom.

3. good upbringing : when my mum come overs for a few days, she likes to cook extra and let the maid eat for lunch. She does not fuss over leftover food. She says "thank you" to anyone who holds the lift, be it in my estate or shopping mall. Don’t think many of us do that even.

4. truly love my kids : 3 years ago, my daughter fell into a jacuzzi pool, my maid jumped in to save her. She was so worried that I would scold her coz she had forgotten to remove the handphone from her pocket.

5. she keeps her off day to once a month from 11am-7pm, but if we are out of town, I’ll ask her to go 9am to 8pm. She only takes $20 to $50 each time.

Her bad qualities ;

A). Do not ask if she doesn’t know. Or in other words act "smart" Eg. 1I bought a packet of Japanese fish cake home, she stuff it in the cupboard instead of the fridge, she thought it was "normal food" Eg. 2 Or after cutting all the vegetables then ask you is it like that mam? What can I say if it is already cut wrongly.

Solution : 1) I packed the groceries into the fridge (from my marketing )& keep track of them myself, For her, she is to label on a A4 paper what are the food kept in cupboard on the inner cabinet eg. 2 packet bee hoon, 1 packet laksa paste, 2 packet bak ku teh. Of course deducting the qty when used. 2)I demonstrate or watch how she cut the first few pieces before I move away and do my own things.

B) Likes to talk to other maids : she is my PR directory, she keeps me posted which family has maid and where they are from, who is the longest or shortest working maid.

Solution : Occassionally I tell her to open the letterbox at a different time of the day , giving excuse my girl is taking a nap & I do not want her to open the main door. Doing car wash on weekdays (change day) and not weekends.


My old neighbours are always looking out for me and envious of my maid, in fact one of them even wanted to ask my maid get a maid for him on her home leave. But of course my maid didn’t have connections, she is a very "straight" maid. But he did get a maid from Lampung eventually.

My theory is to show gratitude & have talks with your maid like a mother or sister. I send my maid back once every 15 months or so. , 1 to 2 months. I had to send my laundry to the cleaners & dine out more, mop the floor less, ask my kids to help out. I helped her to borrow novels and DVD from the library so that she can read or watch them on weekends when we are out with friends. Since she is a divorcee & has a daughter aged 13 years old, I would buy a gift for her when we travel overseas. I think it is not nice to prevent the maid from taking home leave by giving them bonus, more off days etc. We as workers ourselves know that money is not everything. We want to feel appreciated, so does our maid. We make it a point to buy her a cake and take her out for dinner on her birthday too.

In short, having a maid is like having another child, she needs love, care ,
education & communication, a good maid will relieve you of all the household chores and you can spend more quality time with your kids & hubby.

Sorry for the lengthy post! Cheers!

[peapot]

raynreg, my new indo maid is ex-Singapore 4 years. So can speak fairly good English. If you get ex-Singapore then language will be less of a problem. If you don’t mind then you can consider ex-singapore. Amazingly there was a phone number in the Bio-data of her previous employer. So I called her. She told me on the whole she ok but can be temperamental and also she talks to other maids. But can take care of kids. Upon hearing this, I decided to try her. I don’t think can get a "perfect" maid. As long as she don’t go overboard I can accept. I hope the previous employer is telling the truth though.