Maid in Singapore
When people first get to know us, and see how we already have a kid, one of the first questions they’d generally ask is, ‘And so do you have a maid to help you?’ And when we say no, they’d then sometimes ask, ‘Are your parents here with you?’ To which we again say … hmmm, no.
I’m not too surprised when people ask us such questions because it is quite common to have a maid in Singapore (though not as common as having one or more maids in Indonesia!), especially when you already have a kid.
Personally, I don’t really like the idea of having a maid living with us anyway. I just feel there’ll be less privacy for our family. I don’t mind having a part-time maid though who comes and helps us out with the housework for a few hours every week or so. In fact now we do have one coming every 2 weeks for 3 hours. She does ALL the ironing too! Yay!
Someone once told me that people usually don’t hire maids because they don’t have enough money to pay for one. If they had the money, they would’ve hired one.
But then after I think about it, for our case, it’s not about the money. I mean, I could’ve gone back to my fulltime job, have more money, and therefore hire a fulltime maid to help and look after Anya and at the same time, clean up the house, cook, etc. But neh, how can I let anyone take on my privilege of looking after Anya? AND, it’s much better to have our home just to ourselves anyway *wink wink*
Oh, and also, to those who think that they can never survive without a maid after they have kids … I’d like to say, ‘You CAN survive!’ Look, I’ve done it so far and lots of my other friends have done it too.
Yes, it’s not easy but it’s not as bad as you think too.
3 Comments »
Leave a comment!
If you don’t like the idea of getting a maid because of privacy concern, you may consider a cleaning company to do the cleaning stuff. Cleaning services is also popular in Singapore.
Hi Christine!
Thanks for leaving a comment!
And btw, that’s a very good question you got there 🙂 Hmm, perhaps I should write a post and share more details about it one of these days.
One thing I can say though, juggling all these roles are not easy. But we just go through it one day at a time, enjoying whatever moments we can.
If I were to list a few things that help me go through things so far :
– multitasking
(doing more than one thing at a time, eg. putting all dirty laundry into the washing machine and getting it started, then prepare dinner, getting the kid to sit near you and help marinate or stir something, getting the water to boil / defrosting the meat, while at the same time talking to them / singing, etc)
– working / watch DVDs / catching up with hubby while kids are asleep (which basically means less sleep for us, naturally)
– close one eye and tolerate mess here and there (eg. washing the dishes may have to wait till the next morning)
– not being too worried / stressed over things that shouldn’t actually be worried about
I guess there are a few more … Hmm. But those are what I can think of right now 🙂
I hope what I’ve shared makes some sort of sense .. 🙂
Do share your thoughts ya!
xxx
Leonny
Hi, My husband and I are inspired and learnt a lot from your website. But as a mum, I really wonder if you could share more about how you manage housework, work and kids. How did you manage them when your kids were younger, like from birth to 2yrs old?