All About Full-Time Maids

[hquek]

hi admummy,


Many young kids can’t talk but they sure can express their preference. Without knowing the facts, I would say that she may not have treated your youngest well since he can’t stand her around. My neighbours ran through a series of maids - the worst one actually clipped baby’s inner thighs with clothes peg. the family was wondering why the baby hated her and only found out later what was going on.

I would say there are better maids out there and it’s useless if she only give you trouble. Yes, don’t give her hp; get her a radio or a even an mp3 player - she only want music, so why need hp. Sorry, but young and attractive maids usually invites swarms of bees around so you may have to be more vigilant in case any unwelcome guests come.

And please, talk to your hubby and tell him YOUR domain is the house. if your maid finds that he keep siding with her, there could be no end of trouble from her.

[Anna Ng]

hi admummy

Hai! I would rather change maid also. My dearest Philipino maid had left us 3 weeks ago and decided not to come back (heart broken). At first I die die don want transfer maid and single as I always think they don know how to take care of the children and got the mindset that all the transfer maids are being rejected one. However due to urgent need and after listen to my friend’s advice (she likes to hire transfer maid), I started to search around for transfer maid. Guess what! I managed to find a transfer maid (Philipino, 28, single) and surprisingly she is good. She has been working in S’pore for 4 years and Arab for 2 years. Anyway she only with us for 2 days, but at least my house is very clean and she can handle my 1 year old boy very well (she has been looking for old folk for 4 years in S’pore). I not really need to train her and just need to tell her where we placed our things. If you don like your maid, you may consider giving her a chance and deadline, no point to keep her. Don forget you are the one who pay for the salary why make yourself so stress?

[nms1]

sistasi:

Hi all esp for those who left the kid alone with maid, no supervision from mother/father/in-laws,

i'm quite new to have a maid, need some advice here.
do you give your maid house keys?
do you let your maid go out the house for a walk?
do you let your maid bring their friends into the house?
thx.

The majority of the time one of my in-laws will be around when we are not at home but we do leave my maid alone with the children occasionally. We only did this once we were comfortable that she could be trusted.

There is always a key at home as sometimes she goes to fetch my youngest from childcare if my m-i-l can't but otherwise she is not allowed out of the house. She is definitely not allowed to bring anyone inside.

If you leave her alone, make sure she knows what to do in the case of an emergency and she knows who to call if there is a problem. When my maid is at home in the morning on her own, she will always call one of us if someone comes to the door e.g. a contractor, NEA looking for mosquitoes whatever. She will not let them in otherwise.

[Lynn2010]

kaka:

Lynn2010:

She knows the Embassy contract is formality only...

May I know how much you are paying her after the contract renewal?

My maid has a cousin who just come to work in Sin. I asked her if she knows how much her cousin is being paid, she said $520 as the cousin's employer followed the contract. Then she quickly said she is not complaining as she is happy working. I am still uneasy ...

Last contract was $410. New contract $460. I gave her half contract bonus which is not stipulated in her contract (that is if she completes 1 yr, i give her 1 week pay - that was for last contract). This contract I may consider half month pay after one year (see how). So, it is about $20 a month. I told her based on her performance (\"Performance Bonus\"). Give her $50 hongbaos for each bday, Xmas & CNY. I keep emphasizing - i will not match other people's pay but i will reward her based on her performance. I told her that she doesnt get an employer who ill treat her. She gets every Sundays off + Xmas day off. Give slowly lah.

But many are already getting >$500. A relative had a maid completed a contract, 2 yrs exp only. Doesnt want to renew contract with my relative bcos someone wanted to hire her for $500. Her old pay was $380 (as she was new from Phil, 1st contract). <sigh> spoil market

[Breadandmuffins]

Hi admummy

Yr maid is onlywith u for 1.5 months and u already have some reservations. As a sahm, u have to work closely with her, so IMHO, you may want to change another one. Otherwise, u will find yourself even more stressed up. what about a older maid aged 35 to 40s? I personally find older ones more matured.

[kaka]

Lynn2010:

Last contract was $410. New contract $460. I gave her half contract bonus which is not stipulated in her contract (that is if she completes 1 yr, i give her 1 week pay - that was for last contract). This contract I may consider half month pay after one year (see how). So, it is about $20 a month. I told her based on her performance (\"Performance Bonus\"). Give her $50 hongbaos for each bday, Xmas & CNY. I keep emphasizing - i will not match other people's pay but i will reward her based on her performance. I told her that she doesnt get an employer who ill treat her. She gets every Sundays off + Xmas day off. Give slowly lah.

But many are already getting >$500. A relative had a maid completed a contract, 2 yrs exp only. Doesnt want to renew contract with my relative bcos someone wanted to hire her for $500. Her old pay was $380 (as she was new from Phil, 1st contract). <sigh> spoil market

Mine has been with me for 2 yrs, last contract $380 with off day. The market has really gone up in the last 2 years. Think will just follow the current new maid rate, or the increase is too much for me to handle. Just paid for the passport renewal with agent at $375, coming soon to pay will be work permit, home leave, insurance, air ticket ..

[DesertWind]

Admummy:

Hope you all can gimme some views abt my situation..


Abt half month after she arrives, on one occasion, she claimed that she dreamed of a friend dead and came looked for her..then in another occasion (at a condo showflat) she claimed that she saw a man starring at her outside the glass (outside was a patch of empty land with lots of trees) ..., she cannot cook, my youngest dislike her, not even let her carry or change diaper for short while...... I am only feeling unjust that I am behaving more like a maid than her.. What boils me is that this helper is too \"vain\".. .... She claimed that she need one to listen to MP3 only, coz she need music when she is BORED! ..plus she told me recently that her sis also coming to Singapore to work soon..I got a feel she will ask for her sis to meet her, she just testing her luck and planning her move now..Some other things that I dislike her include:

Disrespectful, got once she saw I was frightened by a cockroach, when she caught it, she purposely bring it in front of my face and smilingly said yeee m'am..my hubby defended her that she young so trying to be playful..

She very funny and kaypo, will ask about our details like full name (including my mil's, birthday,etc) dunno for what..

Vain..she keep on wanting to change clothes..

She always carry a daze and faraway in thought kind of look, not sure if she suffering from any mental illness..

She appear friendly like to initiate talk with people even though I have told her not to talk to other people when outside..she also \"attracting\" a lot of stares from foreign worker, not confident to let her go out alone..my previous maid use to walk to my mil house..now I dun think can...

She cannot cook and is not helping me much but hubby said even new one may also be the same. He claimed that tis one can be tamed at least afraid of us if too matured very stubborn may tok back...

So if u all face with this situation, will you replace her?

Dear Admummy,

Can really feel your frus when reading through your post!

I put myself into your shoes, will I replace her? YES! DO IT ASAP! Why?

1. She is pretty and vain, attracting attention from foreign workers.

2. Your hubby said she is tame and don't talk back. Bullshit. She tangled that cockroach in front of you remember? So she must be only tame and doesn't talk back in front of your hubby?

3. Cannot cook, cannot help you much with your kids especially baby and is BORED (my god!). Hire her for what?

4. The issue of handphone should not even arise. Why should you give her a handphone when you are not happy with her and facing all these problems with her? How to survive long with her?

Change lah! Sorry, unless you really need your hubby's permission or he is having the economic power over the maid hiring. Even then, you should persuade him. She's here 1.5 months only, tell him she freaks you out and with 3 kids really you don't want to take the risk!

You can get better maids out there but don't choose too pretty ones hor?!

All the best!

[omgmum]

My complaints are quite similar to admummy’s! My maid appears v tame in front of my hubby but she will bang things around when there’s only me at home! My husband can ask her to bring him anything and she will do everything with a smile. I take the dishes in and clean up after my toddler, and when I ask her to help me get something from the fridge because I was tied up with my girl, you should have seen the glare on her face.


Just today, don’t know what got her goat, but she actually banged my books in front of me when she’s cleaning the living room! Because they were in her way when she was cleaning up the place. She’s been banging things around since she first came, but I lun her, and keep telling myself that those were accidents. In fact, during her first week, she actually managed to break the metal latch for a cupboard, and she wouldn’t have told me if I didn’t hear the sound and ask her what had happened. Don’t think it’s PMS cos where got PMS so many times in a month?

Wah! She knocks off at about noon a lot of days, and I just keep quiet if I don’t have anything for her to do. I try to take her out whenever we can, but she gets unhappy when we don’t take her out everytime we go out. The best part is, she very buay song me when I relax in front of her and watch TV or surf the internet. Eh, hello, does she know why I employed her huh?

And I’ve done my darnest to make sure she is comfortable. I lent her a radio to listen to and let her listen to it when she works but now she doesn’t want to listen to it anymore. I asked her if she wanted to read any books, and she said she’s only interested in cookbooks. I lent her a cookbook. She said she can cook and wanted to try cooking, so I let her try frying veg but she didn’t really know how to do that too. And isn’t very happy when I took over. I told her she can cook her pinoy food but she told me pinoy food too easy, and the ingredients aren’t available here.

She can be quite good in her work, but recently she’s been cutting a lot of corners. I lun her cos she can be quite good when she wants to, but my patience has run out. It’s come to the point when I have to bend backwards to please her. I think I can’t tahan her anymore.

Pay her to stress myself for what? Don’t know if I should tell the agent so that I can get another maid before I transfer her. But I’m worried that the agent will want to ask the maid what happened. So a friend suggested that I call the agent on the day itself and then just watch the maid pack and send her off. Any explanations will be done at the agency. Like that can hor?

I think for the next maid I must choose one that is flat as an airport, and who is much, much older and has kids. A good friend also told me to look for maids that are really poor so that they will be serious about working. And I must see the maid in her own clothes, not in a uniform. Must also tell the agent to tell the maid to please pack sensible and conservative clothes to singapore.

Sorry need to vent or I will go cuckoo with all the pent-up frustrations!

[bigsnoopy]

One day I caught her switching on the fan while ironing… Told her to off straight away and she say it is the first time she did it…

[Breadandmuffins]

Hi omgmum


How long have yr maid been with you? You can "tong" her for so long… I cannot lun this kind of attitude, Wah bang things around! I am a sahm so if my maid like that, would have change her long ago.

Mine also answer my dh properly but not me. Sometimes talk to her she ignore me. But this only happened after I had a quarrel with her over use of phone during day.after that quarrel, face black, food anyhow cook. For the last whole yr, have been very frustrated over her raising her voice at the kids. I can’t stand it and somedays, I will just kept quiet throughout and see how she handle them. I am not in a position to tell her off on this cos I can be worse ie my temper is worse when kids are naughty.

So have to Ren . A few days ago, my 5 yr old was screaming and crying and in her anger, she threw his pajamas at him when he was screaming. I saw it and told my dh this is the last straw. She had been with me for a long time and recently became impatient with the kids. I think it also had to do with her being tired of the job. So will seriously consider not renew her contract and let her find another employer. Last yr we wanted to ask her to go already but could not really do so as still need help.