All About Full-Time Maids

[Lynn2010]

Hi Admummy,

If i were you, i would put my foot down and sack her regardless what your hubby say. Tell your hubby that you are the one who needs assistance so he should leave it to you to decide if she is capable of helping you.
If your helper is already like that in the beginning, i do not think she is a good maid that can help you in the long run.
I learned from experience: Your new maid: set rules right from Day 1. On all my maids first day, I spend half hr to 1 hr to tell them MY RULES. Then i show them around my house. I tell them if they are not serious in working, i will not use them (means sack loh). In fact, during the interview, i would have told them this.
Eg. No handphone during the day until after they complete their work after 8pm or 9pm. I give them a timetable. These are just some examples.

[Breadandmuffins]

Hi omgmum

My maid gets to go downstairs with the kids everyday and it is where she mixed around and chit chat with other maids. At night, she also chats on hp (at her own expense) She knows the neighborhood more than me! I don’t bring her out often.I will bring out all four kids together sometimes to parks etc. We normally leave her at home to be away from the kids for a while to get some chores done at her own time.

on her off days, she has activities like sports competition once in a few months, also got some gatherings. That probably keep her going for so long.

[omgmum]

Hi kaka,


No choice leh, cos I disabled IDD calls from my house phone and it's her loan period. She is really quite broke and she didn't have a sim card. So I bought 2 $18 cards, one for sms and one for calls. I told her that once the value finishes, she'll have to top up on her own. She was so weepy the first 2 weeks, I thought I'd better let her get some outlet.

I also don't like to make small talk, hard to when she's always showing me a black face. :razz: But I also know how boring it is to always be cooped in the house, doing nothing but housework. And I don't want a berserk maid also!

The thing is she doesn't have off days yet during her loan period, so she can't entertain herself. Actually, I quite look forward to when the maid will get a day off once a month, so that i don't need to worry about keeping her sane!

I think no matter how much I dislike the maid, must still give her some outlet/ form of entertainment, or they might go cuckoo and chase after me with parang.

Hi nsm1,

yeah, think I will stick to a budget for her. If she's good, then increase the budget.

Do you have any idea where to get the tagalog novels? Think must tell the maid specifically that she can read the newspapers, and maybe let her watch TV with me in the evening.

[Lynn2010]

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?

Hi Admummy,
I agree with Anna, sack her. You may take time to find another one. ALL my maids are transfer maids and i dont think that they are all bad. Some are being \"abused\" by their employers eg. not enough food to eat, work from 6am till 1am, etc. Therefore they wanted to change employer. I change 8 maids in 2 yrs. Now finally, this one is ok. Not perfect of course. My 3 basic criteria: (1)Honest (2)Sincerely want to work (3)able to cook. If they cant meet these criteria, they'll be sack. A maid is to help me with my household chores and give me a peace of my mind.
Some of my bad experience and I sack them are: (1) hide in the room listen to music whole day and i can find cobwebs everywhere, that means did not follow my timetable (2) keep losing money that i give them to pay for things (3) start to sweep & mop the floor at night only when i'm back home from work (4) teach 1 month one dish, cant even produce, etc.

[omgmum]

Hi breadandmuffins, hmmm, maybe I should suss out some good maids and introduce them to my maid. I think the biggest prob is that during the loan period there's no off day, and I don't want to give my maid an off day before the end of the loan or she'll take things for granted.


I think I know why my maid threw a tantrum yesterday and was so moody today. Cos in the contract, I was supposed to pay her yesterday. But I got her a day later than i was supposed to, and the agent told me to pay her on the 17th instead. She made the changes on her own copy, but didn't make the changes on our copies of the contract. So my maid must have thought that I delayed her payment!

Wah lau eh! Can ask me what! Today she was quite defiant until I showed my displeasure on my face and was very curt, but still very civil to her. And I also found out that she's run out of toilet paper since prob the first week! What was she using????? I told her to help herself to the toilet paper!!!! OMG!!! Does she wash her hands clean??? And the best part is, she must have thought that I was depriving her of toilet paper or what. And she also didn't tell me that the heater for her bathroom wasn't working. Is that why she's so angry with me??? :slapshead:

Now that i've figured out the reason for her latest tantrum, I'm wondering if I should give her one last chance. Like admummy, I only have 1 replacement within 6 months. This time, must tell her again that I don't like attitude and banging of things, and if she's not happy with anything, she should tell me. I think must get her recruiter to tell her in her own language in case anything gets lost in translation.

The only other thing I'm worried about is that she's always so tired. If I'm going to give her another chance, I'll probably need to get her another thorough checkup.

[Lynn2010]

LKVM:

Mine is very poor never goto see the fan also in the life but come here lazy... wat to do???

I think poor or not poor is subjective; pros and cons.

Poor - sometimes very yiao kui bcos, very poor never eat before. End up stealing food or stealing money or household goods. Some poor ones are very good, they are thrifty, doesnt mind overnight food, happy with everything you give them and appreciative.

richer ones - so far those \"rich ones\" i encounter, they earn for themselves, no need to send back too much money. Pros is that they have money to buy things they see you eat, but they have the pride not to eat yours. They wont steal cos they have the money to buy for themselves. Con, they \"ah tahs\", they dont like you (employer), they have no qualms about changing employer, they have the money to pay agent (agent usually collects 1 or 2 months)

[Lynn2010]

nms1:

jtoh:

[quote=\"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...

What's wrong with having the fan on while ironing? Ironing is sweaty work. I iron with the fan or aircon on. Cannot tahan.

Agree! I keep reminding my maid to switch the fan on[/quote]
I let my maid use the fan anytime (ironing). She has a fan in her room to sleep with too. Fan doesnt cost too much electricity, Singapore weather is too hot.

[Lynn2010]

bigsnoopy:

jtoh:

I see. My home not as windy as yours. I had a maid who used to iron sitting down.

Wont it be difficult to iron while sitting down? :scratchhead: Just curious how long does ur maid use to iron the clothes... Mine use 3hrs for 3 days to iron a week of laundry which include DH and my clothes.. Is it too long?

Oh.... my place not windy. I dont really care if they sit, stand or sleep to iron as long as work get done. Anyway, if it is small thing like using fan or using water heater, i close my eyes as they dont really cost much. Everyone has different habits and style, therefore as long as work gets done and they work hard sincerely, (no pretend or acting), i'm ok.

Once i find that the go overboard and start to demand things, then i \"start to lecture them with stories\". Another favourite sentence when they start to misbehave, \"If you are not happy at any point in time, you can go\".

[Lynn2010]

omgmum:

And one more question: How do you make sure your maids stay sane? Let them watch TV? Let them read? Take them out with you most of the time?


I thought of getting a small TV for the maid to let her watch after she's done for the day. Cos I don't want to always take her out with us, and I want her to be able to relax at the end of the day as well. I'm more than willing to borrow books for them but am worried that like my current maid, the next one may not be into reading, or be very literate.

And anyone knows if there are any tagalog stations in singapore? My maid lost interest in the radio after a few days cos there are no tagalog stations.

wow.... dont spoil market leh. :evil:

I let them use their phones (at their own expense) so that they can talk to their friends \"their problems\". Listen to music ok too. I have a friend who allows her maid to watch TV. She literally glues to the TV in the afternoon and sometimes not paying attention the the needs of the kids. I suppose it is fine if you are at home most of the time - 2 cents worth

[Lynn2010]

Admummy,


I would suggest that you do a "review of performance" every 3 to 6 months. Tell her what you like about her and what not, what need to be improved. I did that to my current one for the first 2 years. I sit down and have a chat every about 4 to 6 months