Should I Let Her Go?

[lowfatlatte]

My current helper has been with me for about 8 months. She is Fillippino from the semi-rural area. Fantastic at household chores and is (most importantly) honest. My place has never been cleaner (less cockroaches & lizards) compared to my last 3 helpers (who extend their contract at least once before going home).


My dilemma is that
(1) she cant cook well, my teenager refuse to eat anything she cooks coz she can’t seem to replicate the recipes I taught her
(2) can be quite forgetful
(3) sometimes communication problems, don’t understand what she is talking about and vice versa.

As such, i have to mediate and explain to the children on her actions/ inactions based on where she comes from. I have gotten angry with her because of communication and forgetting stuff and I have given up asking her to cook. The fact that she can’t seem to learn how to cook bothers me, as we tend to eat out more often now.
I am reluctant to ask her to leave (or find another employer) because I know she is here to earn a living and she has 2 kids to feed at home and a loan to pay off because of a failed business. I have never had to ask a helper to leave before.

I am also considering other options of
(1) hire part-time cleaner to come to the house 1-2 times a week,
(2) get another helper (transfer)

I am still unsure. Should I just let her serve out her 2 years? Or just let her go end of the year and opt for either option (1) or (2) when she leaves? Sigh…

[Lynn2010]

You say she cannot replicate. Did you write down when you show her? Also, tell her that you like her but she needs to learn how to cook well otherwise you may have to send her back (hopefully she will pay more attention)


I remember sending my maid to some kind of cooking class organise specially for phil maids. Cost around $40 (some years back) for a year. Has to pay a few dollars of ingredients fees, \"uniform\" and apron i think. In all, not expensive, if i remember correctly, it's alternate Sundays. The centre, non-for-profit, call Balayan or something at Pasir Panjang??

There's another one:
http://www.fast.org.sg/index.php/trainees/join-our-courses

[lowfatlatte]

Lynn2010:

There's another one:

http://www.fast.org.sg/index.php/trainees/join-our-courses

Thank you for the link Lynn. I will look into getting her to attend the courses.

[Lynn2010]

You can also look into community club’s cooking classes, so that it is closer to home

[PhoBIA]

Try letting her cook really simple stuff. Fried rice, steam minced pork, fried egg, steam tofu, vege fried w garlic?


If she can’t handle even something so simple…I don’t know what to say…

[PhoBIA]

lowfatlatte:

I am also considering other options of
(1) hire part-time cleaner to come to the house 1-2 times a week,

If your children are big, go for option 1. Since the helper can't cook, why do you need her anyway? Those that really want to learn would have learnt by 6 months....
I may sound harsh but I have had really bad experience with maids even when I treated them very nicely.

[Hiaweh]

PhoBIA:

lowfatlatte:

I am also considering other options of
(1) hire part-time cleaner to come to the house 1-2 times a week,

If your children are big, go for option 1. Since the helper can't cook, why do you need her anyway? Those that really want to learn would have learnt by 6 months....
I may sound harsh but I have had really bad experience with maids even when I treated them very nicely.

Yes. I agree. If they really keen to learn they will but it seems that if yr children doesn't want to eat what she cook then she has one chore less to do so there's no incentive for her to improve. On the other hand, one thing less to do since they would rather eat out.

[Coolkidsrock2]

Hi lowfatlatte, I’m new here and not sure of the protocol for posting. I do need a maid who is able to perform housekeeping well. Cooking is not a priority for me. As my existing maid is leaving next week and the passport of the new maid is not ready, perhaps you may wish to transfer her to me, temporarily, while you try out option 1? I have tried option 1 myself previously and it can be quite tough on a permanent basis so you may wish to try before giving up maid for good. Apologise if this seem rude or opportunistic.

[lowfatlatte]

Thank you for all you inputs.


I am holding her till October as I have no time to train a new one till then. There were on 2 occasions when I get so angry that I would pinch her. I feel really bad for that. That was initially when she was 4-5 months-old. I had NEVER done that to my 3 previous helpers who served be between 2-6 years each. I am running on a Windows 8 schedule but she is only running on 386... :rotflmao:

One of the concerns of my sister and my 13-yr-old is that I have a blood mole in my brain and they are afraid that it would \"burst\" if i got angry/upset too often. I know i have probably given her a lot of chances, just 1 more i guess and i'll send her to a proper cooking course and see how it goes...

[PhoBIA]

Coolkidsrock2:

Hi lowfatlatte, I'm new here and not sure of the protocol for posting. I do need a maid who is able to perform housekeeping well. Cooking is not a priority for me. As my existing maid is leaving next week and the passport of the new maid is not ready, perhaps you may wish to transfer her to me, temporarily, while you try out option 1? I have tried option 1 myself previously and it can be quite tough on a permanent basis so you may wish to try before giving up maid for good. Apologise if this seem rude or opportunistic.

Transferring of maid is not so easy....
You need to buy the insurance, pay for transfer of employer....etc. lots of paper work. You may want to get from a transfer maid from a trusted agency. Slightly better control. In case things don't work out, can throw back to the agency.