Maids

as the saying goes......"you cant live WITH them, you cant live WITHOUT them..."

well.....I have my fair share of foreign maids' problems and things can get pretty messy when certain problems arise and needs to be tackled......properly.
those who know me pretty understand my predicament for I'm someone who's expressive and open up to them whenever my 'beloved' maids give me 'pressies' for the day!

think I could write a book on the maid problems I experienced and those stories I've heard from people around me. Just sitting down now and rewinding back to the times on how my life's been coloured by these "smart, gifted and those who have the potential do wonders to their employers" creatures. The list of things my 2 beloved maids have done is enough to fill the pages of a university honours degree's thesis! Perhaps more.....Sometimes they make me wonder......are they really that incapable of using their brains (I wouldnt wanna use the S word) or did they just do it on purpose to test the level of my anger and the level of boiling points my head will get into. I must salute them for being so capable at times in doing the house chores and leaving behind their brains back in their homeland. These people can be so naive that they think that we dont see or check on them.

First was my Philipino maid who gave me one hell of a problem the minute she arrives. To cut the story short, she was one of the reasons I went into labour the day after I encountered some problems with her. Yes, my son was born a day after this "sweetie" gave me a big pressie!!!

These people are just so capable in making our life a living hell sometimes.

Like for instance, soaking the table cloth in a potty!!!!.... Yes, I can see that your eyes are huge now that your eyebalss might be dropping out anytime soon. You might ask - who in their right mind would soak something in a potty.... Table cloth somemore????? well....my maid did. And she gave me a clueless look as to why I got so mad at that. It made me wonder if I could shove her brain into the washing machine and have it cleaned and bleached!

Another one would be leaving their slippers outside of the car and getting onto the car bare-footed! Yes...this actually happened to my maid and we actually found her slippers right in the middle of the road outside our house. She actually had the cheek to ask me "Maam, mana selipar saya" when we arrived at the mall one day and were ready to get down when she realised she "lost" her slippers. Tell me...to laugh or to be angry?
Same thing happened to my friend's maid as well....

Another thing about these people that I cant stand is their ability to answer back and not admit their mistakes. In fact, this happened twice yesterday..... I got up pretty early yesterday morning to send my hubby to the airport when I noticed that a pail at my garage overflowed. I went and checked and realised that she didnt turn off the water pipe while soaking the mops into the pail. I wanted to confront her there and then but she was in the toilet washing some clothes and there we were rushing to the airport. So when I returned from the airport, I immediately confronted her about it and guess what sweet lil maid answered? "Saya mau rendam mop dalam baldi. Sebab itu saya buka air." Obviously she didnt understand my question to her which was "U tau tak u tak tutup paip tadi?" and she had the cheek to answer me back by insisting that she did turn off the pipe after I told her my discovery! I mean, why cant they just shut up and say sorry? That could have saved me some energy to talk further. This is one thing I despise about my current maid. She loves answering back and insisting that she's right eventhough there are proofs that she's not. And again it happened at my mother's house that same day in the evening. She forgot to switch off the water heater and insisted that she did!

And this particular maid tend to talk alot and mind other people's business. Imagine she could actually join in our conversations among my family members and think that she's part of us...duh~ We would be speaking in Hokkien and when she understands what we were talking about, she would join in as if it's a pretty normal thing to do. Urgh~~~~!!!!!!!!!
Once she even nicknamed my chubby-but-cute niece "GEMUK"! The exact sentence was like this "Maam, Gemuk sudah datang." Imagine my horror upon hearing that coming out from her mouth???!!!!! I could swear that my eyes would have fallen out if not for the nature's ability to hold them back!!! I was practically speechless when I heard that.
And another time when my mother and cousin were having this conversation about my cousin's second daughter crying all the time...this "mulut banyak" maid actually joined in the conversation by saying, "Yalah, dia tu suka nangis."...oblivious to the fact that she's just a freaking maid and her opinion doesnt matter at all! Shouldnt have opened her bloody mouth in the first place. My mom actually told me to educate my maid after that. Imagine my embarrassment.

Gosh...I can seriously write a book about this girl. She and her big mouth! She loves talking.....sharing stories with other maids and eventually making the stories come back to me and get me on my nerves... One such incident which made me loathe her even more was when I found out that she told other people how much ang pow money I gave her and comparing the amount with other employers who gave her. She told her fellow friends that even other employers gave her more that her own employer. The thing is....she made a mistake and told the wrong info cos as a matter of fact I DID give her more that she reported to her peers!!!!

Also, she tends to have requests like a princess. She actually told me what she dislikes and likes about the way she's being treated in my house! Mind....this B#$%@ just doesnt realise where she stands in the hierachy in our household!

I know I shouldnt be upset with these sort of issues. Afterall, the reasons why they are here to work is because they are not that educated enough, hence no common sense. But hey, I cant help it... I'm a woman...I can get very emotional and sensitive over things like that. My husband used to tell me that I get upset for nothing and I should just let loose. Afterall, they are just maids... Well, he's true in a certain way but then again.......I have my own feelings...I have the rights to be upset....I need to let it out. So much so I did have some rows with my husband a few times simply because of these freaking maids! Men tend to take things lightly and not look deeper into the issue. Hence, our disagreements in certains things with regards to these maids. I understand that it's not healthy to be trapped in arguments with my hubby over the maids....but then again, I realised that with the rise of certains issues, I could actually get to know more about my husband, as well as see deeper into his characters which left me wonder if I truly know this man whom I married. Well, that's for me to find out and for you to....well, wonder further. haha

Anyway, this particular "princess" maid is leaving tomorrow..for good! Another round of headache that I went through on this abrupt decision of hers to return before her contract ends. Well, that leaves me with another headache - not knowing what kinda person my new maid's gonna be. One thing's for sure - she's not gonna be spoilt like how this current one has been - especially by certain people whom unfortunately didnt make it to my list of favourite people. Well, May God bless me with more wisdom and patience in handling my new maid and May God also bless her with common sense and guide her into making full use of her brain! Amen~

Well, I'm not saying that all foreign maids are incapable of using their heads when they are at work......I do have friends who have such good maid that they treat her like a part of the family. Bringing her around the world whenever they go for family vacations and all. Well, that's because she deserves it and proved her worth and gained her employer's trust!

But then again.....you can never trust these people 100%.......simply because no matter what, they are strangers whom we have no idea of their backgrounds or whatsoever. Even family members have disputes among themselves.....and what makes one thinks that these maids would not change their attitudes and turn their backs against us?

Like I mentioned earlier......you cant live with them, you cant live without them.......how true!!