(2008/02) Feb 2008 MTBs


Hi Pauline/Iso,

SM is going to K's school next year. I won't change lah cos I want the two girls to go to school together. She's going to Btw 2 Trees at Dunearn road now. The school will move to 6th Ave in August so she will change from afternoon to morning session. Infact, I will keep option open to put her in afternoon childcare next year after the morning school with cheh cheh. Cos cheh cheh has afternoon enrichment classes whereas Prenursery dun have.

Anyone here a Dora fan? Just let you know Dora is coming to Peek-A-Boo on 1 May. So do come down and join the fun if your lil ones are fans. There will be colouring contest, meet&greet, games and prizes. The morning session is fully booked but there's a new afternoon session just up. http://bit.ly/I6z4Dp Have a great weekend!
 
bkk
thanks for sharing. I think i will look around for a school for A for either mornings or just 3 days a week, otherwise he has to wait until January, and I think he'll enjoy school. Already he cries when E goes to school and he can't! haha.

maids
mummies, any of your maids got drama and say they want to go home because mother/family member sick? my maid told me that yesterday, but in the same conversation she also mentioned that next year MOM say got day off and that her friends get $450 (she gets $350), so i suspect she is just trying to ask me for more money. she's been with us less than 1.5 years. my friend had the exact same sob story but stayed for $50 more and my friend plans to not renew her contract. now i have to consider what to do given that the baby will be coming too!
 
Iso, my A4 will be going to kindie next Jan at 26 mths!

Think yr maid want more $. Can give her some incentive as motivation to work. Can't rem which nationality she is. Maybe not easy for her to find work once she is back .
 
thanks ladies,

i also think she is trying her luck for more $. but i am not afraid, haha. i think i might tell her she can go home next month, or she can have a small increment and if 3-6 months (haven't decided yet) she performs better then she can get an increase. i think i'll tell her it's to help her family, because this family does not reward bad behaviour, haha!! and i don't want her to think that she is indispensable.

my agent says new indo maids are getting $420.
 
Iso,

Yeah seems to me that she's asking for more $$. I would probably challenge her immediately and ask if she really wants to go home or is she trying to ask for increment. Honestly, that is what I do at work as well.

I usually give my helper increment after they complete 1 year with me IF they are doing well. For my current one - I did not give her any and I'm paying her $360, but that is because I already told her that come May when i have my #2 and she has more responsibilities that I'll increase her salary to $400, with a bonus at the end of her contract. So far she's ok. I also told her that next year when the new regulation is in for the extra day off, I will give her an option for additional cash and she also told me that she agrees as she does not know what to do with off days anyway. Might as well save more $$. Mine told me that she might not be able to extend as well because her daughter is going to school next year even with me offering more $$. Hopefully she can stay on at least another year with me. Unfortunately with maids, you just have to be ready that they will want to go and we have to find replacement but yeah, it can be quite difficult esp when you have changes like another baby.
 
Iso,

I got the same story with my maid No.2 in Feb lah.. she said she dreamt her grandmother passed away...story delivered with red nose and tears as well. That was when she was with me for 1 yr 10 months. I sent her back.

My new maid (No.3) is Indonesian, ex-Sg and totally cannot make it. i'm going to change her this week. i have never flared up at my previous 2 combined as much as i had with No. 3 in the past 6 weeks.

On hingsight, a tiny weeny bit of regret letting No. 2 go..cos No.3 is really much much worse (n higher pay of $100 more! as per the new rates) But then again, there were real issues why i decided not to keep No. 2 also... so i guess no choice, just have to keep trying until i get one that is the acceptable.

Haiz.

With the growing tummy, i have this feeling that my No. 2 and No. 3 FDW think that they have 1 up in such situations and they are indispensible. try harder. haha.

But seriously, i would be lying if i'm not stressed out by this issue... cos i would like to have the new FDW nicely settled in before i deliver... with this changing to No. 4, it will mean i have an even shorter time to train her... what if she doesn;t work out again. stressed.
 
Thanks ladies!

piglet
haha.. I also think the same! I am not scared to have to handle the boys myself for a few days or even two weeks, although it means the house won't be as clean and we probably need to eat out more. but would definitely be nice if they didn't have to "chut pattern" at this timing hor!!

i offered her more salary, $400 from $350 then a bit more towards the end of the year and a year end bonus if she stays. But she is still thinking of going back first, so maybe her mum really needs her.

We might give her a few days after she goes back to decide whether she wants to come back or not. she also said that she can work as a child minder in Jakarta, so i think higher chance she won't come back. She is ok, not fantastic, but I'm just afraid of getting one who is worse! will ask agent to start looking out for one for me just in case. Sianz!
 
Iso,

How about giving her $450 as she wished, or she thinks her worth? If she seems gauging the price that she got to pay if she chose to leave, and she still insists asking. They are less advantaged, can't jump to other companies or even to other counties with no penalties.

Hope that she delivers her worth that she values if given a chance(pay). There's interest conflicts between agents and us. They earns more if we change helpers, and calibre of helpers are ok.
 
Hi Iso,

checked with my agent yesterday, seems there is some pending changes to regulations and thus charges to be borne by employers for Indonesian FDWs... u may want to confirm this with your agent... cos it will affect the cost of hiring those who are currently still in Indonesia/need to make passport vs. getting transfer/have ready passport, etc, etc...
 
piglettail,
is ex-sg indon paid at least $480 now??
cos that was what i heard fm my agent.

iso,

ya, chked wid my agent too n understand there most likely will be increased cost in hiring a new indon maid.

Yeps, my maid s contract wid me is expiring but have decided to keep her even though she s way far from fantastic, she s really jus a pair of hands n legs to me n i have blown my top countless times with her. But unfortunately, i do need her hands n legs to do all the hsehold chores that have decided to up her pay to $430 fm $350 with pay increment aftr 6 mths if she fares well cos i do not want her to feel too short changed since a fresh indon maid is now getting $420. She asked for mthly off day (luckily not weekly) and hp. Said no to hp but will give her 2 hrs off per week, so 8 hrs in total per mth. Her perk is that every qtr i wld bring her to some classes, cook g, compt or whatever. Frequency of classes will increase if she fares well.

anyway, though my maid is not fantastic but she s not the sneaky type n is quite a bad liar :p have thus decided to keep her. so, if urs is not that bad n her personality doesn't suck, it may be worth keeping her. Jus my 2 cents worth of thots...
happy.gif
good luck !!!
 
leila
wah, your maid can tahan if no hp?? i also feel a bit bad for them, esp since i usually have no clue what she's talking about even if she shares with me about life in indonesia, so i think it's good that she has some communication with friends through a hp as long as the use is regulated lah.
but mine is still not sure whether she is going to come back or not and since we agreed that she can go home her work has not improved.

tubao
i did offer her a bonus at the end of the year which will make the last few months of the year $450.

anyway after some consideration i hope to convince hubby to try filipno maid because i'm quite pek chek of repeating my instructions so many times and even have to sometimes cook and do things with her step by step or check very often because of language issues. and i think my maid's english is not bad already so i forsee if get another indo one whose english is even worse, i will really get more stress when the baby comes.

the last straw was we were away and she said someone came to the door, but she dunno who and where from, but the lady was holding a book and writing on some card, and asked how many children lived here so she (maid) told the lady, and also said we were on holiday. wah liao, i think that really compromises our security!!
 
Iso,

Just change... i have chosen and if all goes as planned the new FDW should arrive this weekend or next. Agree, theft, security and violence on children are immediate send back signals for me. this current has forgotten to swtich off the lights, heater and turn off the tap every single time she was to leave the house alone after us (once a week). The final straw was she she did not lock the door when she came down to open the security door for me last Saturday. I don't want to risk the day she leaves the house without locking the door or switching off the gas stove...
 
13th May - its mother's day...are we still meeting? heh...i thought of going to the port of lost wonders at sentosa, anyone keen?
 
Piglet
aiyoh!! lucky we live in SG otherwise your house would have been robbed by now.. haha

Ok mummies, another qn
if i change maid, should i let them overlap or should i send one off first then wait for the other to come?
 
Iso,

for the 2 previous i sent off and waited for 1 month for the other to arrive... house got very messy by the time the new FDW ;p

this time, i will be sending the current back 1 day before and getting the new 1 the next day, so there's no 'down time'...

i dun think u can over lap cos we cant hold on to 2 FDW at any one time...i think?
 
Hello mummies!

My new FDW arrived.... better than the previous, finger's crossed (it's been only 2 days)

I needto look into getting CCTV for my house...does anyone have any infor/knowledge for this? am totally clueless! Looking at something simple (web-based?), about 2-3 camera points would be sufficient.
 
piglet
not sure, i think my agent suggested i let them overlap, but will double check. but i don't want them to influence each other..
good luck with your new FDW!! cross fingers and toes!! i've just selected a new one already, apparently can be as fast as 2 weeks plus. I'll be happy if she is good for the next year or so and doesn't give me too much headache...
 
Hi, piglettail, Iso,

Very good luck on your new helpers!

Hehe.....when I changed my 2nd one, all others criticized me heavily, though my husband said that he didn't have ANY opinion. Probably intuition, I don't know.

Don't worry about language. All my 3 helpers can speak mandarin after staying with us, I asked them to learn with kids(of course, helpers learned faster), and asked to read English books aloud. Haha.....I am like a childcare teacher when asking them to read.
 
good morning everyone!
it's Friday again! why so quiet here?

my sis was planning to go Japan for tour, and there are SO MANY of her friends told her that it's not safe to go Japan.
most common info she received from her friends are 'i have a friend's friend went Japan and come back doc told her/him that she cannot conceive for 5/10 years or foetus has to be aborted'.

at the same time she received an email from her company giving lots of info about touring in Japan. In short, the email is to assure them that going to Japan is safe.
I've also checked with my doctor friends, especially 1 that's speciallized in radiography. they all assured me that the dose is far too less to do harm on a tourist.

what's your view? and what did you hear?
 
tubao
for me i asked my maid not to read to them unless they ask her too, hee!! i don't wish her to influence their english.. i know they can pick up english/chinese well, but so far mine i still have to give very specific instructions and often check on her to see that she's doing the right thing. and I don't have the patience to do that anymore, esp when new bb arrives, so i hope the next filipino one will be able to understand better.

XY
i have just been talking to a lady who lives in tokyo, and she said that if she does have kids she will move way down south, far away from the radiation, because she doesn't trust the government and she thinks (i agree) that with radiation you won't know the effects until many years later.

i think it's not so bad if you're not going to the affected areas, and i would definitely NOT go with kids and definitely not if i'm preggers. I also heard a few stories of people going and coming back and gynae advise them not to conceive, or one couple who were 3 months preggers got miscarriage (actually, would YOU go if you were 3 months preggers?!). But all friends of friends stories lah.
 
Hihi, long time no post.
happy.gif


XY, my cousin lives and works in Tokyo though she did come back for a few weeks immediately after the radiation accident. She continues to work there cos she said it's biz as usual for the Japs. I heard from one of the Jan08 mummies (Krystle) that the Japanese are shutting down all the radiation plants to minimise radiation levels so they are shutting down power earlier in the cities. Not sure if that will help. Another Jan mummy just came back from Hokkaido holiday and the couple she went with were ttc, maybe it's further north so not as affected, not sure. :p

As for me, initially I wanted to go to Japan last June to visit my cousin but changed plan and went to HK Disneyland instead. So far, I've not been back to Japan but since I am not sure about radiation half-life and no hurry so maybe next yr bah if I have a chance.
 
Hi XY

I found an answer for you. If your sis is still going to Japan , she can do some detox when we comes back from Japan. like having sea salt and soda bath, etc. can get info from Lapis Lazuli Light.
 
Long long time did not post and see all of you too.

Hi XY,
people who stay and work in Japan do not have any choices. Like Iso said, it takes years to know if radiation will cause any harm to your body. If your sister had decided not to conceive than just go ahead. My sil and her friend also went to Hokkaido last year. Just take your risk only ya.

Of course governement won't not announced. If they announced, there will be another recession.
 
hello folks - ironically i just came back from Japan, i suppose for radiation to affect you is a long term effect...i do not believe a trip of 7 days is going to cause much harm (personal opinion)...i suppose with all the electronics ard us, we are being constantly "radiated"..haha
 
bluegin,
i've visited on one weekday - without the kids.
not bad. nice place.

let me know when you want to go. hopefully a Saturday.


btw, mummies, i am thinking to attend some hands-on workshop for breadmaking on Friday day time.
anyone has any recommendations or anyone interested to go with me?
 
i'm here on and off... still quite free, doing maternity leave until october
happy.gif


iso, are you counting the days now? has piggletail/apple pop yet?

angie, you change your nick ;)
 
Hi Mummies

Been over a year (or more) since I last visited the SMH Forum. Not sure if you still remember me. Time passed so fast ever since I stopped work about a year back. Am so surprised the thread is still active indeed. Now trying for no. 3.
 
Most of us has moved to individual group.
I wonder how is apple, tute and ISO?

Holiday season is around the corner. Good to hear more good news from all of you.

Sweetpea,
Of cos, we rem you. So you have been a SAHM for a year? Awesome. What are you busied with?
 


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