All About Life Without Maids

[nonKiasu]

janet_lee88:

My hubby is the one who manages the finances. Having a maid = levy + salary + food + 6 months doc checkup.


If the maid does what she is employed to do, I believe any employer would continue to have a maid, but if she shows black face, has an attitude problem, tells lies and gives problems, why should we have to pay so much to have a maid ?

I can't afford to have a maid, bcos I can't afford to feed her. With my last Filipino maid, she ate so much rice that I have to buy a cheaper brand. Now that we don't have a maid, my PUB bill has dropped as well as my grocery expenditure. My hubby also helps out with the household chores, the kids and we don't quarrel over a maid (the maid gives problems and I get stressed etc etc etc).

Ha, ha. Same here. We bought 25kg rice, giant brand! Now, we can eat organic brown rice (2kg) on alternate days.
Yes, I also got stress up from maid, driving me crazy. Yes, they are ex partly bec I may need to pay for my own mental treatment if things continue in this way.

[MintyMin]

nonKiasu:

Your DH is exactly like mine! So frust. My DH don't even wash his own cup! Employing maid is more of serving him than helping me bec maid's problem is my problem! So my long term strategy is to train my DSs to do housework. The good thing abt childcare is that they really train our kids to do everything themselves and we just need to add on. My 5-yr old triplets can wash their own dishes. In the evening, DSs help me to mop the floor. I squeeze the mop and they have fun walking around with the mop. Yes, I make it a fun time and limit it to only 20 min. If too long, it will not be fun anymore. With an irobot to vacuum in the morning while DSs is in kindergarten, my floor is deem clean whole day. As for laundry, I need to collect only my DH ones which can be anywhere in the house! Furst! I do the laundry after DSs go to bed at 8pm and collect them from the bamboo only next evening when we need to bathe. So don't time and effort to fold the clothes, towel, etc. I don't iron any clothes bec only my DH's office clothes need to be iron and I am not his maid. So, celtricia, it may be possible if we close both eyes on our DHs mess. I sometimes ask my DSs to nag at their daddy or better still, clear the mess of their daddy e.g wash the cup.

The initial weeks w/o maid is tough but will get use to it soon. In fact, before my maid left, just thinking abt life w/o maid is scary since I have maid for 5 good years. But in the end, what I enjoy is privacy.
All the best in trying out without a maid

nonKiasu, ya manz.. my DH clothes is everywhere too... tings he take, he'll juz leave it where he last is.. seriously can't stand it.. My son who is same age as ur DSs loves to use the small vacuum to vacuum the flr whenever he sees dirts, hair, crumbs.

Once my youngest reached 18mths, i'll have my maid to go, whh is in august. I can't wait. Though my mum n aunts told me to reconsider as it will be huge amount of wrk if am gg to be still wrking n wif no maid, to do all the hsewrk by myself will tired me out.. whh b4 i read all the postings in this thread, i seriously doubt if am capable..

HEre will b the place where i will find all motivation and encouragement to go maidless n haf a clean n tidy home..

[janet88]

nonkiasu,

I buy Heavenly 5kg rice...when I had a maid, my 5kg can finish in 2-3 weeks :shock: Then I switched to NTUC. Without a maid, I switched back to my favourite Heavenly brand.

When I had a maid and she drives me up the wall, I seek consolation from hubby...if he is in a good mood, he will listen. If not, he will show me a black face bcos the maid costs him a lot of money every month.
Without a maid, we have so much privacy and not worry about money being lost or a stranger walking into the room. Of course, the house is not that clean and the windows are not shiny.

[Breadandmuffins]

Hi


I have been thinking of letting go of my current maid (and also one and only maid) who was with me for 7 years but have no courage to do so. I am a SAHM with 4 kids ranging from 1.5 to 8 yrs old and a husband who has a very busy and stressful job. I drive the two older ones to schools and enrichment (tennis, piano, chinese, art) do all the marketing, plus supervise their work, read to them, bring them to parks,playground except cleaning and cooking which is done by maid. Of course, she also help slook after the children when I am out. If I am without a maid, I will have to bring the younger ones whereever I go, rush home, cook meals, do laundry etc, which could be difficult at times. Even now, I always felt stressed with the lack of quiet time for myself. Husband and MIL are totally against this idea of no maid. Reason of letting her go is that she is no longer interested in her work and keep on using HP despite repeated reminders for the last 10mths. Also started to become rude and naggy…very frustrating for me. If you are a SAHM with 4 kids and no help, perhaps you can share with me how to cope without going "crazy"

[janet88]

Breadandmuffins:

Hi


I have been thinking of letting go of my current maid (and also one and only maid) who was with me for 7 years but have no courage to do so. I am a SAHM with 4 kids ranging from 1.5 to 8 yrs old and a husband who has a very busy and stressful job. I drive the two older ones to schools and enrichment (tennis, piano, chinese, art) do all the marketing, plus supervise their work, read to them, bring them to parks,playground except cleaning and cooking which is done by maid. Of course, she also help slook after the children when I am out. If I am without a maid, I will have to bring the younger ones whereever I go, rush home, cook meals, do laundry etc, which could be difficult at times. Even now, I always felt stressed with the lack of quiet time for myself. Husband and MIL are totally against this idea of no maid. Reason of letting her go is that she is no longer interested in her work and keep on using HP despite repeated reminders for the last 10mths. Also started to become rude and naggy.....very frustrating for me. If you are a SAHM with 4 kids and no help, perhaps you can share with me how to cope without going \"crazy\"

It's very tiring to have no maid with 4 kids, esp since you have to bring them around for activities on top of housework and cooking. If this maid is on your nerves and stressing you out, have you thought of getting another one to help you for another 1-2 years until kids are bigger. Or perhaps cut down on some of the kids' activities.

[nonKiasu]

janet_lee88:

Breadandmuffins:

Hi


I have been thinking of letting go of my current maid (and also one and only maid) who was with me for 7 years but have no courage to do so. I am a SAHM with 4 kids ranging from 1.5 to 8 yrs old and a husband who has a very busy and stressful job. I drive the two older ones to schools and enrichment (tennis, piano, chinese, art) do all the marketing, plus supervise their work, read to them, bring them to parks,playground except cleaning and cooking which is done by maid. Of course, she also help slook after the children when I am out. If I am without a maid, I will have to bring the younger ones whereever I go, rush home, cook meals, do laundry etc, which could be difficult at times. Even now, I always felt stressed with the lack of quiet time for myself. Husband and MIL are totally against this idea of no maid. Reason of letting her go is that she is no longer interested in her work and keep on using HP despite repeated reminders for the last 10mths. Also started to become rude and naggy.....very frustrating for me. If you are a SAHM with 4 kids and no help, perhaps you can share with me how to cope without going \"crazy\"

It's very tiring to have no maid with 4 kids, esp since you have to bring them around for activities on top of housework and cooking. If this maid is on your nerves and stressing you out, have you thought of getting another one to help you for another 1-2 years until kids are bigger. Or perhaps cut down on some of the kids' activities.

Ya, I thot so too. I am so tiring with 3 boys and can't imagine if I have 4, esp your youngest one is only 1.5 y.o. However, it also depends on how independent your older ones are. Can the 8 y.o. one help to look after the 1.5 y.o. if you are out for 1 hr? Is your 1.5 y.o. very guai and you can tahan that she is with you wherever u go? I am the youngest and I used used to follow whereever my mum went and got nickname handerchief. We were fine bec my mum love to have my company.
My 2-cents worth of advise...
You should prep yourself and your kids on life w/o maid. Run thru in your mind - how u will do things differently w/o the maid. A few mths before my maid contract ends, I started to try out various chores that kids can do on their own or even help me. Yap, stop my maid helping my DSs on various things. I also start looking for gadgets that can help me. So far, bought only the iRobot (1 mth b4 my maid left). In short, must get ready b4 maid left. Finally, D day to try w/o maid. Then if really too tiring, you can always get a new maid.
My take is you never know you can make it if you never try. However, we hv to be flexible to do a U-turn.

[janet88]

When we had a maid, my hubby can do things which irritated me like leaving cups around, or else face computer whole day or watch TV…while I had to suffer the maid’s nonsense.

Of course the shiok part is someone to cook and clean up, BUT that is where my expenses increase…bcos hubby wanted to eat more dishes.

[myWQ]

We have been surving without a maid since our kid was born. Not easy, ut beats the hassle and potential problems of having one.

[minnie2004]

Accidentally bumped into this thread last nite and after reading all your posts I was also convinced to try maidless after my current maid leaves end of the month. I even did some research on irobots etc. Ironing (mainly DH's work shirts) and car washing can be outsourced.


However, this morning as I was doing yoga in my weekly class, I started to have doubts again. Who's going to look after my kids at home if I'm out doing yoga? Probably my yoga classes will be the first to sacrifice . Also, as we don't have parents and PILs here, is it still possible for me and DH to catch a weekend movie from time to time?

Cooking is another issue. We always cook 3 dishes and a soup for dinner. Although these are not hard to prepare, I'm not sure if I can stand the heat in the kitchen

So despite all the benefits of going maidless, I'm afraid I'll still have to hire another replacement at least after my kids are old enough to be left alone at home. In the meantime, I'd better train them to be more independent to prepare for that day

[wobblejelly]

myWQ:

We have been surving without a maid since our kid was born. Not easy, ut beats the hassle and potential problems of having one.

Agree, :celebrate:
I am a FTWM with 2 kids and maidless. Fortunately for us, we go to our PIL home for dinner everyday. Housework can be a really chore but I'd rather not deal with a maid.. Heard too many horror stories.