Hi everyone,
just to advise about my bad experience with a confinement nanny:
BEWARE of this confinement nanny:
Chew Yong Ying from Ipoh. Also known as AH YONG. Ask to see her passport to verify it is her. Born in June.
She is about 55 years old. She is the replacement they sent because the other confinement nanny's father died halfway through the confinement period.
What she looks like:
She is very plump and is a bit hunched over. She burps very loudly too. Talks a lot. Can speak and understand English although not very well and she pretends that she does not understand. (She speaks to and teases my daughter in English all the time). If you need her picture, I am happy to send it to you.
What the living arrangement is:
We let her have the master room with ensuite and the baby in the room. The WHOLE sink and bathroom is full of her stuff - mostly creams and lotions and other beauty products. VERY messy and untidy. She also has a pot of our laundry detergent in there which she uses like it's free.
Basically, she is VERY lazy, very wasteful, complains A LOT, very untidy and has NO knowledge of the right herbs or foods for confinement, and does NOT know much about babies at all. In fact, I know more about babies than she does - and I am half her age, and not a confinement nanny.
These are a few examples of how bad she is. There are many more worse examples:
1) MOPPING - She drops hair (both head hair and pubic hair) all over our floor and refuses to sweep or mop the floor. My husband has blonde hair and my hair is long. And I have brazilian wax. So the black short hair and pubic hair on the floor can only be hers since we do not have other visitors. She says mopping or cleaning any part of the house is not her job.
She is supposedly from GPLS. The last nanny I got from GPLS was excellent and in fact swept the house every day without us asking! She picked up every hair as well. And she was 60 years old. She did not ask for more money and in fact mopping once a week is in the job description.
2) MORE MONEY - This nanny claims that to cook for my husband and wash his dishes, she should be paid extra. My husband eats the SAME food as I do, and uses only ONE plate per meal. All the other confinement nannies have no problem with this. Even the confinement nannies from agencies did not ask for extra money just for this.
3) WASHING BABY - She tried to shower my 14 month old daughter and every time, my daughter would scream very loudly for the whole shower. Finally one day I peeped to see why my daughter is screaming so much and I saw the woman was very rough and did not know how to shower children at all! She let all the soap run into my daughter's eyes and mouth and nose and inside the ears!
4) CHANGING BABY - Every time she changes or cleans the new born baby, the baby will also scream like crazy. So one time I ran in there to see, and saw her poking in my baby's nose with a tissue and she took so long to change a nappy that he got cold and so he was screaming every time she changed or washed him.
She does not know how to change nappy at all. The bed had to be changed 3 times in 1 week because she let shit and pee go all over the bed, even with a changing mat under the baby!
5) MINDING BABY - She complains a lot about the baby waking up all night and crying all the time. This is what babies do and the job of confinement nanny is to mind the baby 24 hours. This is why she is being paid more than a full-time maid. She complains that Singapore is so hot, the baby is so noisy, she is so tired, her throat is sore, her tummy is sort, etc etc.
6) BURPING BABY - She refuses to wind / burp my baby properly. He has a lot of wind and I recognise the cry because of wind. But she said "oh he is breast fed so he doesn't have wind." End up I have to burp him and care for him myself. She only washes him once a day.
7) COOKING - She does NOT know what to cook. So you have to plan the cooking and herbs yourself. She will say you can take everything.
8) EATING - She loves to eat. Every time I open the fridge, she will come to the kitchen to see what food I am making to eat, and ask me what I am eating. She even asked my mother to bring more pig trotters and vinegar soup for her because she likes to eat that soup! She thinks she is the queen or what?
She is very picky about food and asks us to bring her special white bread, special 3-in-1 Milo, etc etc. She wants to eat our cheese, our fruits, everything. We are ok with that IF she is a hard worker. But she is SO LAZY, we do not feel like giving her more food! She is not here to eat. She is here to cook confinement food and to mind the baby and she is not doing her job.
9) WASTING OUR STUFF - She uses our things like it's free. In 7 days that she's here, the laundry powder ran out. The toilet paper ran out. The kitchen paper ran out. Even the garbage bags ran out because she used a huge bag for a little thing and then threw the whole thing away. All these were NEW and replenished when she arrived. Even the mops were new when she arrived.
The garbage bin got flooded inside because she somehow made a hole in the garbage bag and the garbage fluids leaked through. I had to wash the garbage bin because it is not in her job description! The mop turned black because she did not wash the mop after using it.
10) In the 7 days that she's been here, she requested to go downstairs to have dinner with her son because it's her birthday. We allowed that without problem. Then she said she wants to end the confinement period early by 3 days because she wants to go and attend a wedding in Malaysia. No sense of responsibility at all! Very selfish and lazy and greedy.
11) She had the cheek to ask me to find her $3000 (28 days) jobs. She says that she heard some nannies get $3000 this year because it is dragon year. I said to her those nannies are very experienced and very hardworking. She did not get the hint. There are also nannies getting only $1800.
So she said, in her previous nanny assignments, she's always gotten very large ang pows - hundreds of dollars each. (I heard her mention only 1 or 2 other jobs that she's had.) And that if she worked for agency, she would get very large ang pows as well. She was trying to hint to me to give her very large ang pow! We gave her ang pow out of courtesy only as the ang pow was given to the original nanny and not supposed to give to the replacement nanny. And ang pow is based on performance - not on what the nanny demands.
12) She sleeps so much that my husband commented how come she sleeps more than the new born baby. She eats and sleeps most of the time. And tries to change everything in my house. She opens windows that are closed, and closes windows that are open. She folds our clothes haphazardly so that I have to refold them. I have to wash up a lot of dishes and clean up after her. She leaves garbage on top of the bin instead of pushing it down and into the bin. She drips garbage water on the floor and does not wipe it up. So basically I am not resting that much!
13) She asks me personal questions like what do I do, what does my husband do, how much money our furniture costs, how much our rent costs, how much we have to make to pay for all these. She even counts how many rooms and air conditioners we have and how much it costs. She even asks what my parents do, how much money they make, etc. She is basically trying to gauge how rich we are and then trying to spend our money by using up all our stuff, and then make us pay her more by giving her big ang pow! She keeps saying "oh go and buy more of this and more of that. Just go and buy!" Every day she is here, there is something to buy!
I have been very stressed in the 7 days that she has been here. But I cannot get a replacement as it is towards the end of my confinement period and no nanny will take up the remaining days on her behalf. As she is not from agency, I also cannot force her to find a replacement. even if she's with agency, I doubt they will find a replacement for such a short number of days left.
I do NOT feel safe with this woman at all. I would not leave her alone with any of my children and have to keep an eye on her all the time. She has no experience and is very lazy.
She claims she does not know why the baby is crying or why something is finished, etc. She has no sense of responsibility or urgency.
She can spend hours in the bathroom and in the kitchen. We can't go into the kitchen when she is in there as there're plates and vegetables (and meat!) all over the kitchen and we can't do anything in there as there is no space. We have to mind the baby when she is in the bathroom, so basically we are doing her job for her.
She even took pictures of my children without my permission. I am very dissatisfied and unhappy with this woman. She is wasting my time and money. And compared to my experience with other confinement nannies, she is VERY TERRIBLE and NOT recommended. We have been very forgiving and open-minded and have given her face by not telling her off. But she is one of those people who think that if you give her face, she must be right.
In summary, she is a very greedy, very lazy and very bad confinement nanny. She has no characteristics or skills that are essential to this job and she should not be doing this job. I do not feel safe or rested with her around.
Just to warn every one about this nanny. Engage her at your own peril. Especially if you have high standards or have experience with very good nannies, this nanny will make you very upset and unhappy.
