All About Life Without Maids

[scang]

b2b3m4:

You can find lots of tips here on how to prepare a fast dinner or dinner in advance. For me, with some advance prep, dinner can be done in half an hour e.g one pot dinner like fried rice w miso soup, noodle soup, porridge, pasta etc or niang doufu soup w rice. For dishes that require longer hours to cook, you can use a thermal pot and cook in the morning like pork ribs soup w (corn, winter melon, potato & carrot & tomato, lotus root, water cress (to be added in the evening) or chicken/beef/ribs stew with the usual potato, celery and carrots.
Some times u can also ta pao steam chicken or any dish from a hawker stall, cook rice and add a simple vege or egg drop soup or buy roast chicken / roast ribs etc from the super market, put frozen french fries on a tray and heat up in the oven or toaster (or airfryer). Make a simple salad and add on can bake beans or fry a sunny side up.
Other than french fries, u can always use frozen prata, a simple butter rice with peas or just heat up a can of Campbell soup and throw in some alphabet pasta.

As for sick children, no choice one needs to take turns with spouse to be on leave. And most importantly, is to make sure kids are healthy by eating healthly and expose them to lots of sun and exercise. Confining them in enclose air con space to me is very bad for the health.

Yes, kids fall sick easily due to their lower immunity which takes time to build up.

While I can't prevent them from falling sick, what I did was to build up their immunity faster or stronger by giving them the right supplement so that they will not fall sick that easily.

For example :
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSa5yFuOkUY][/youtube]

[Cheepoozz]

We sent our maid home for 2 weeks already. The very next day after she was sent packing home. we dropped our 20 mth younger boy at the childcare. It was heartpain at first as he has been well protected at home .. as opposed to seeing him cry and trying to adapt to the new environment..


Looking back now.. he has cope well , thou reluctant at times.. we felt the choice to do without helper is a correct move.. more quality time is spend with our boys.. as most of you have said.. the trade off is LESS ME time ..

thank goodness , i have my mother in law and a weekly help to clean up and cook..

Cheers
Life without a maid isnt that tough after all. :salute:

[beariecrystal3]

for FTWM without a helper, how do you manage your daily chores?


i found that i dont have enough time to spend with my kids, as i am always busy with household chores.

[Imami]

Depends on how u want to do it - one single day (usually a weekend) do everything or everyday do a bit.


I used to do it all one shot but decided it’s not a good move. These days I do bit by bit everyday. When I hv more time, I do a bit more.

Get the kids to help u! My little one helps to set the dining table, serve the rice, hang his own socks/ipunderwear/pants/shirt, he also does his homework on his own (save me heap of time nagging him).

[Coolkidsrock2]

Would like advice/tips on keeping the kitchen clean. This is one of the key consideration I am keeping the maid. Currently my maid will clean up the kitchen daily after cooking - cleaning kitchen cabinets, door and floor. She will take everything out to wash and clean out the interiors of the cabinets as well as scrub floor and walls. I find that part-time maids cannot clean as well in this respect though I have a session dedicated for the kitchen.

[einney]

I’m a FTWM and trying to prepare myself if my maid decided not to work for me because I don’t let her do moonlighting. I’m most concern about good healthy meal for my 2.5 years old daughter. By the time I come back and pick her up, it’s already 7pm. Any advise on how to prepare her healthy dinner? for me & my husband, we don’t mind catering and all… but I prefer hcf for my daugher.

[longmao.029846irene]

einney:

I'm a FTWM and trying to prepare myself if my maid decided not to work for me because I don't let her do moonlighting. I'm most concern about good healthy meal for my 2.5 years old daughter. By the time I come back and pick her up, it's already 7pm. Any advise on how to prepare her healthy dinner? for me & my husband, we don't mind catering and all.. but I prefer hcf for my daugher.

Hihi,
Most kids luv soupy stuff, n they do eat faster wif it!!
So mayb in d morning or d nite before just prep everytig for d soup n pop everytig in d slow cooker!! In d evening will hv a tasty soup minus d MSG.
Fried a veg or egg n talah...
Other days can b one dish meal, cm hm eg: for chix claypot rice
Put ready prep ingrediant (chn sauage, chix,mushroom) n pop everytig in rice cooker n tats it.. Other simple meals r like yang tao foo, spagetti, honey baked chix... D list is endless, just google n plan everytig a week before to get all stuffs n thaw + prep d nite before..
Trust me is possible!! All boils down to time management!
Cheers

[einney]

longmao.irene, ur reply is very encouraging. Thank u


Jus one silly question, I'm normally leave to drop my child at childcare and then to work about 7.15am and be back about 7pm. Is it safe to leave the slowcooker on for that long period of time? will the soup be dry by then?

[MintyMin]

einney, if u r worried, used a thermal pot instead… but of coz the soup with the ingredients muz b boiled at least 30mins b4 u can put into the thermal pot itself… tatz wat i do every morning b4 heading to wrk…

[weatherbee]

Coolkidsrock2:

Would like advice/tips on keeping the kitchen clean. This is one of the key consideration I am keeping the maid. Currently my maid will clean up the kitchen daily after cooking - cleaning kitchen cabinets, door and floor. She will take everything out to wash and clean out the interiors of the cabinets as well as scrub floor and walls. I find that part-time maids cannot clean as well in this respect though I have a session dedicated for the kitchen.

If she's so good then just keep her?