All About Full-Time Maids

[hquek]

Tamama:

hi everybody,

i am new to here and would like to say hi.
i have employed a filipino maid just last month. i never have a maid in singapore before. may i know how you provide her consumables like soap, shampoo, tooth brush, sanitary napkins, etc? you buy for her? she buys herself and got a receipt to claim back from you? or you give her an allowance for a certain period?
last month after she came i gave her $50 and told her it would be for her consumables for 3 months. today she tells me she need extra money to buy her sanitary napkins cos all her $50 was spent up already. :!: am i giving her too less?
i have no idea about the price of those consumables cos we are in singapore for just half year. we brought over quite a lot of those consumables from US and up to now we are still using them without buying new ones. so please give me some ideas on how to manage this situation. many many thanks.

hi tanama,

MOM requires us to provide her with toiletries but never indicate brand. Usual standard is for employers to buy and just pass to her. And where the maid desires a particular brand, she will have to pay for it herself.

$50 is a lot - shampoo maybe $12 for big bottle, body wash also $12, toothpaste $3. What the heck did she buy? FYI, I understand from my agent that we only need to give her the basics - things like conditioner, moisturizer is on her own tab. Then again, an employer can always choose to give.

I don't think giving her money direct is a good idea as the money could have gone into handphone or other stuff - how to prove that she did use the money as intended?

Anyway, for now, guess you don't have much option but to buy the napkins for her. Just inform her that YOU will buy and just pass to her.

[NicHei]

I will buy and pay everything for her, except for her sanitary napkins and phonecards.

[hquek]

Also you may want to monitor her usage. My 2nd maid can finish one BIG tube of toothpaste in a very very short time. After that, I told her toiletries she pay…and suddenly she became very frugal and the tube of toothpaste could last very much longer.

[Hiccup]

Hi hquek and celtricia


Thanks for your advice!

Hi Tamama,

I will not give the helper money to buy her own toiletries. I will buy for them and pass to them. You can get 20 pcs of sanitary pads at about $1.75 from Venus, those shops specialising in shampoos & toiletries.

[fayeV]

Hello! i am new and got a problem with my indo maid of 5 mths. She came back recently with alot of love bites (she even pasted a butterfly shaped plaster over one of it) on her neck. She tried to tell me those are rashes which i dismissed. I was pretty upset and told her i dont want to see that happening again but she never admitted it.


Its been 4 days but i am thinking if I should let her go. her work is pretty good, she follows instructions well. I taught her to bake bread and cookies for the house and she takes care of my baby boy while i work. problem is she talks on the phone after all the chores late in to the night, always talking to different men and giggling and singing away. it didnt bother me much as i feel as long as she does her work well, i dont want to interfere in her private life. But she talks to men she has never seen before and would came to me with request for laptop, request to go to bintan to see her boyfriend etc. She spends her money on taking cabs and buying clothes from cotton on etc.I am afraid she might get pregnant or invite trouble back home.

Wanted to see any good advice out here…thanks and sorry for a long post!

[verykiasu2010]

just let her go before she brings trouble to you


the next thing you know probably is when she fails the pregnancy test at the 6-monthly check up

she is not the only good indo maid around

[fayeV]

thanks for the quick response!


if she gets pregnant, i will lose my 5000sgd deposit? sorry first time employer here and my maid is ex singapore twice, so very "smart". DH is not fully with my suggestion to let her go as "nothing has happened yet".

[S6169]

NicHei:

I will buy and pay everything for her, except for her sanitary napkins and phonecards.

same here.

[ANobleNerd]

Let her go. It’s been 5 months, so she’s not likely to change her ways. Also, she sounds as if she’s settled into a pattern.


It’s not a problem yet, but what if one of those men appears at your house looking for her? She sounds like trouble.

Pregnancy is one thing, but if she brings home STD, you might have even more problems in your household.

[bigsnoopy]

Or maybe you should wait for the loan to be cleared first before sending her back to the agent. This way, you won’t be at the maid agency’s mercy.