Cherry,
I think I shared before.
Maid 1 was 95% with housework. Everything in sight ended up in the storeroom within mins. House was very clean. But she kept so much stuff and forgot where she kept them and we (including herself) cannot find when we need the stuff. The heart attacks came when she brought DD out of the house (mainly to the corridor) without permission. There was this time that she allowed my neighbours to bring my DD downstairs without permission. Scare the hell out of me. Then another once that she didnt come home with DD when school was closed due to HFMD. My mum happened to pop by school and found that school was closed and found them not at home too. I almost rushed home from work. She only came home after 1 hour and claimed that DD didnt want to come home, so brought DD to the playground. After giving her the final warning, she still brought DD out of the house, to the corridor without permission. Duno when she will go short-circuit again and decided to send her back to agency after 3 months.
2nd maid was a princess maid. Came and wasnt good with housework. House was as messy as when we have no maid. Sit on the sofa and relaxed when she was supposed to man DD. There was once that we brought her to MIL's house and DD was playing on BIL's maid. I sat on the floor supervising DD and the princess maid actually sat on BIL's bed! I was so pai seh. Dd didnt like her and was going through Terrible Two. Many tantrums every day and refused to let the maid touched her. Then she started having nightmares and woke up crying in the night very frequently. On one occasion, my niece told my mum that the maid beat DD, which we cannot verify. Every day was a nightmare, worried that she will do something to DD when they are alone at home. My eyes were glued to my laptop, which I used to view them thru' internet camera. After one month, she asked to quit bcos she cannot handle DD. I was more than glad to let her go. After she left, DD took a while to return back to normal.
Since then, I never left my kids with maid for long hours.
I am still consider lucky. At least the maids dun steal or abuse the kids. And they dun "sell" themselves.