sooyindotcom

Taking a break from all the baby updates…

Our maid arrived about a week or so before Elena was born, which means she has now been with us for about four months. Overall, I think we’re pretty lucky as she’s quite good, but of course, there are some hits and misses here and there. Some of the ‘funny’ stuff that she did so far that I can remember:

1. Picking her nails with the vegetable knife… …so I gave her a manicure set after that…
2. Sifting through some of our food after we’d finished it…
3. Eating one of my muffins but denying she did when I asked her (am quite sure about this as both hubby and my parents didn’t eat it). Actually, I don’t mind that she ate it, it’s that she denied it afterwards…that’s what infuriated me, sigh.
4. On her second day with us, she climbed out onto the aircon ledge to clean the windows from the outside. I got a shock when I saw her as my parent’s unit is on the 18th floor! From ground level, it probably looked as if she wanted to commit suicide or something!!!
5. She knows what I put in Elena’s diaper bag even though I’ve never packed it nor opened it in front of her. The only conclusion I can come to is that she opened it herself to see when she was cleaning my room while I wasn’t around. That is quite worrying if that’s the case.

The main thing that exasperates us about her is that even though we’ve told her not to do, or to do certain things, she won’t listen and she’ll do things her way. She seems to think she’s the boss… …and she can be pretty bold at times. This is something I really need to talk to her about before we move to our new place as looking at her character, she’s likely to step all over me once my mom is not around to keep an eye on her.

However, she does have her good traits as well.

For one, she takes the initiative to do things. A good example: one of the ribbons on Elena’s pjs was unravelling. The next time it came back after being washed, I saw the bottom of the ribbon has been slightly burnt to seal it up.

She’s interested in cooking and at the beginning, she used to watch my mom while she cooks and asks questions about the ingredients and method of cooking. My mom realized that she was itching to cook, and after teaching her how to prepare the ingredients, she started teaching her how to cook different dishes. Now, she actually does most of the cooking and she takes the trouble to decorate up the dishes…eg. cutting the carrots into different shapes, and she’s very meticulous in cutting and chopping the ingredients - the garlic is always sliced very nicely, the beans are always cut the same size, etc. However, she does sometimes go overboard and add in ingredients that we didn’t ask her to…sigh.

She’s also making the effort to learn Mandarin! After hearing us speak Mandarin at home, she listed down quite alot of Malay words and sat down and asked us for the Mandarin translation. After that, I saw her ’studying’ in her room at night, practicing and committing some of the words to memory!

Well, I suppose with the good comes the bad. Anyways, I hope her behaviour will improve after I’ve spoken to her…

We are.

Getting a new maid, that is.

And personally, it’s a scary thought. With so many horror stories about maids out there, getting a maid really feels like a game of Russian roulette…or rather…Turkish roulette! Yet, for reasons I’m not inclined to reveal for now, we need to get one.

The search began in October this…oops…last year, with hubby approaching a few recommended agencies for biodatas. We finally selected one, and went to the agency sometime in November if I remember correctly to settle the first payment, etc. And let me tell you, hiring a maid is NOT cheap, no sirree. The total cost, including the agency fees and the 6 months salary that we have to pay upfront (which goes to the agency and not the maid!!) costs around RM8k! *faints* And of course, there are all these additional clauses about how much we have to pay if we want to exchange the maid, or if the maid runs away, etc….if not for the fact that the cost and all these clauses are pretty standard across the few agencies hubby had checked with, I would’ve honestly declared the whole thing as a big con job (as it is, I still feel like it’s a big con job!!).

Anyhow, we’ve just been told that our new maid has just arrived in Malaysia. She’ll be taken to do her medical check-up, and then a couple of days of training, and hubby will pick her up from the agency this coming Saturday. As I’m currently staying at my parent’s place, she’ll be staying with us here as well.

I’ve been reading some blogs about how families adjust to having a maid around, what are the ‘ground rules’, etc. as I have absolutely no idea how to handle one. Factor in the fact that I’m not all that great when it comes to being an ‘authoritative’ figure, and that…errr…I don’t look like someone who’s mature enough to have a maid…*blek*…I’m quite at a loss about what to do and rather worried that the maid will end up walking all over me instead. Furthermore, as this is my parent’s place, her routine for the next few months will be quite different compared to when we move back to our own place, so I don’t know if this transition period will end up causing any confusion for her (in terms of electrical equipment, etc.).

Anyways, I came across one post that I like very very much from this blog, and I think the author has written a really good ‘guideline’ on how she manages her maid and I think it’s a good starting point for me.

Well, we’ll see how it goes. The good thing is that my mum’s around and I think she’s a better judge of character compared to moi, so if this maid turns out to be some psycho… …at least my parents are around to observe vs. when I’m back home alone with the baby and have no time to pay much attention to the maid. Of course, in the meantime, I shall think positive and hope that we get a good one, ie. the empty chamber in the revolver…