Maids

Recently, I am watching this drama called "Devious Maids".

I just happen to saw it while my elder sister is watching this drama.

It is a really AWESOME show because it is really real and at times a little unreal~

HAHAHAHA!!

Back on the topic on maids, which is a subject that I would love to share about after I had watched "Devious Maids".

My parents had hired 2 maids and my experiences with them are both lovely and torturous.

The 1st Maid

My parents hired a maid to help out with the house chores and mainly, to take care of my younger brother as he is still a baby and my parents are too busy at work.

For me and my sister, we were both taken care of by different nanny, which both have aged and decides not to take care of children anymore. Thus we were forced to hire a maid instead of leaving him in a nanny's care.

To save trouble, my mother hired a Philippine maid that knows how to communicate in English.

 The maid is rather scary and fierce.

She hit and bruise my brother when he is around 1/2 years old.

And my mother saw the bruise and asked me about it.

So, I told her what happened.

And off the maid goes~~

The maid had a really bad temper.

She usually just shouts at my brother when he cries.

But as he grew older, she pulled his ear and hit him.

THAT IS REALLY BAD. I HATE HER.

I do not support child abuse.

I even think that we are letting her off.

We should have had some evidence of her abusing my younger brother and have her blacklisted.

She only last for 1 - 2 years.

And there are NO lovely experiences with her.

The 2nd Maid

This time round, my mother got a Indonesian maid.

She is nice, friendly, hardworking and good to my brother.

That was all at first.

But as time goes by and my brother grows older, there seem to lesser need of her to take care of him.

And she starts to have a lot of free time.

She have time to use her handphone phone and go on to the internet while connected to the wifi is our house.

It is fine as the internet plan is of a fixed price.

Many times was my mother home to see her lying on the sofa and using her phone.

If she were to rest, she could have rested on her bed instead of the sofa.

Her attitude got worst as she no longer prepare my breakfast.

Once, my mother ask her to toast a bread and she told my mother "It is too troublesome."

OMG...Does she know that she is working here?

I figured that she probably feels that she isn't working because she isn't getting her monthly pay as my mother had already kindly allowed her to collect her advance pay of $3000 !!

My mother was so kind to her and advance her pay and also putting aside some money for her to use on her day off. AND THIS IS HOW SHE TREATS MY MOTHER.

It gets even more crazy as I once saw her webcaming with a half naked male ON MY COMPUTER, when I happen to be home early.

She did ask me if she could use my computer the day before, but I told her that she does not have the privilege to do so. We had already given her time to even take afternoon naps and now she is asking to use my computer. I guess she is really too free.

So, I questioned my brother, whose also at home.

I asked him for the reason he turned on my computer and even set up the webcam for her to webcam with some india guy she was chatting with on facebook.

FYI, she don't really know that guy in person.

My brother told me that she said that she would not cook for him if her does not turn on the computer for her.

Anyways, I had to report this incident to my mother.

And the maid dared to ask my mother " why can't I use the computer?"

And my mother way angry and said "you are here to work and not play."

Soon after, my mother assigned her various house chores and the maid complained to me while I eat my breakfast, made by myself.

She said that my mother had became grumpy and refuse to allow her to use the computer and assign her lot of task.

Later, the maid just can't keep out of trouble and ask my mother for more advance pay, saying that she feels under paid and that her friends were paid more.

My mother obviously declined and she started to shout at my mother WHEN ALL THE CHILDREN ARE HOME.

If my dad is at home, she would not dare to do such SHIT.

From then on, I HATE HER.

No one screams at my kind mother, especially not when she had advance your pay and solve your problem back in your hometown.

And so, I discussed with my mother that is it time for her to go home.

I would not like to she her sickening face in the house, every morning when I wake up.

And so , she's sent home.

Such sad ending despite the many happy memories we had.

Why does she have to leave in such a manner....

She last for 10 years.

But the torture continues when she came back to Singapore for more work.

She actually came back to have a sudden visit and acts like it is her home.

My mother had to serve her and her friend drinks.

And she ask my brother to fix her friend's phone, in return, she gave him some snacks.

And soon after she finish her drink and charging her phone, she left.

She was so obviously not welcomed as there was no warm treatment from us, yet she came for her second visit.

And also asking my brother to fix her friend's phone.

This time round, my parents was not home and I couldn't be bothered to serve them drinks or whatsoever.

And when my brother could not fix her phone's internet connection, they were making such a big fuss and insisting that he could.

So I told my brother to send them off immediately.

He told them that they are not welcome and ask them to leave.

Afterwards, they never visited again.

Even though she did ask my mother to hire her again, I insisted that that MUST NOT happen.

And peace is restored.

I am glad to see my mother being more happy now.

Here are some of my advice after having those HORRIBLE experiences:

• Try to NOT even hire a maid.
• If you are forced to hire a maid, give her uniform to constantly remind her of her JOB.

By uniform, I don't mean those shown in the above photos. Even if it is covered up , AUTHENTIC MAID OUTFIT IS OUT OF THE QUESTION!
You don't want the maids to seduce any man (even worst, any of your family members) and get themselves pregnant !
Instead, get those shirt shown below.
Those plain polar tees would work fine.
Tell her that this is her WORK OUTFIT.
Something that is cheap and easy to move in.
How can maid have such freedom of outfit when students, nurses, doctors and many other workers have uniform!! ITS UNFAIR !!!

• Give her a weekly schedule of what to do.
  (eg changing of curtains on monday , bedsheets on wednesday, and washing windows on fridays.)
  Do not forget the daily housework of wiping ( tables, chairs, shelves and wall) vacuuming, mopping, washing the toliet, laundry(maybe every alternate days if there is not a lot of clothes) and cooking.
  
• Let her know her working time
  (eg 8am - 9pm and if she finishes her chores for the day earlier, she can have a few hours break in the afternoon before she started to prepare dinner)
  
• It is really important to let her know that she is here for WORK and not to be treated as some friend.
  (Don't treat her like a friend and help out in the housework. Housework is her duty she is being paid for it.If you want to do the housework, don't even bother getting a maid. Sometimes if you are too good to her, she'll just take it for granted and start to give you attitude.)
  
• It is OK to reprimand her if she do something wrong. Just ....no physical and harsh verbal abuse.
  ( My mom was probably being taken advantage of because she never scolds the maid when she done something wrong. She just lets it go.)
  (eg if she gets out of hand and use you computer while on work hours, SCOLD HER. LET HER KNOW THAT SHE IS HERE TO WORK, NOT ENJOY AND USE THE COMPUTER. If she wanna play the computer, save up and get her own and use it during her breaks.)
  
• This is specially for parents, if you hire a maid to care for your child or even elderly, be EXTRA careful. Check if your baby/elder have bruises and remember to chat and check with them what the maid is doing almost EVERY NIGHT (it'll only take about 5 minutes to do so). If you have elders/children at home, let them know that the maid here for work and that she is working under you and hence indirectly under them. Hence, she is to cook , clean and not play. She can only play when she's done. It is important to explain the role of someone new.
  
• If she is disrespectful doing anything bad and stuff, DO NOT HESITATE TO FIRE HER.
  (NEVER HESITATE!)
  
• Always change maid once every 5 years if she is good to last that long.
  (Do not allow one to last too long with you as you will cause too much emotions and memories to build up as they will have to leave one day. Also, the longer she stays, she might get too comfortable and you might have to fire her due to bad things that happen.)

Thank you for reading my blog post and I hope that this is helpful to many who have maid or is going to get one.
Do note that I am only sharing my own personally experiences with maids and that they are mostly bad ones.
There are of course nice experiences~

However, do note that they are strangers and that you should never judge a book by it's cover!!!

Do comment and share your experiences if you have and do let me know if this blog post is useful~

Have a Nice Day !