All About Life Without Maids

[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.

[myWQ]

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

I take it you are a SAHM? Our problems are quite similar, except we have families in SG. I am currently taking care of the baby myself, and have to rely on my parents or hubby to help out when I need to run some errands or just to have some alone time.

Lucky for me I don't have much household chores to do. Hubby irons his own shirts and will packet dinner back. He also cleans the floor couple of times a week. It also helps greatly that he can come home anytime if needed.

So in our case a maid doesn't really feature in our daily needs.

[myWQ]

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.

So lucky, you staying near your IL's place?

[nonKiasu]

minnie2004:

Who's going to look after my kids at home if I'm out doing yoga?

I have my facial on weekend when my DH is at home to look after the kids.

minnie2004:

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?

Same here, I have no PILs to help and my parents are impossible to look after my DSs. We can always catch DVD at home after the kids to to bed.

minnie2004:

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

Definitely an issue. We throw lots of diff ingredient into a soup and just cook 1 soup dish. Or steam a big fish. Time consuming is washing leafy veg. So eat lots of brocolli, cauliflower or big leafy veg.
Simple dishes only and of course no frying. Mostly steam dishes or soup. We steam even the chicken wings and surprising my DSs love them esp with noodles. If anyone want to eat fried ones, we eat out. No fried stuff at home.

[minnie2004]

Thanks nonKiasu for your suggestions. I guess I can probably shift my yoga class to weekends too and let DH watch the kids. So he can have some quality time with the kids .


As for cooking, we do stir-fry dishes quite a lot. We don't steam that much, only fish, sometimes chicken. I'm afraid my kids (actually it's more my DH) will get bored soon eating steamed stuff all the time . Maybe I shud buy some cook books for steamed dishes :idea: