Review of WONG Sxxx Hxx ( HUA JIE )
My wife and I heard of Hua Jie through extended friends in early 2024 and placed a deposit early to secure a nanny.Nearing our delivery date ~Oct/Nov 2024 we saw a negative review by violetray (link below) regarding this nanny but we brushed it away as:
A) it was so close to our delivery month and we did not think we could find another confinement nanny easily + not sure of other options. Agency nannies are abit more expensive as well
B) did not want to forfeit our deposit.
We were hoping that the experience Violetray had was an outlier of the usual experience but we were things went downhill really fast.
Main complaints:
1) Knowledge gap + Dishonesty
When asking things that were beyond her scope of knowledge, will try to "smoke" us with grossly untrue things, for example:
I) baby refusing to take BM or formula and extremely fussy etc.
- said that baby is going through her milk refusal period ?!?!
II) Constipation is common for babies exclusively on breast milk - FALSE
Breastmilk acts as a natural laxative.
If she doesn't know she should just advise us that she is not sure instead of giving us false info like this.
Luckily my wife and I come from healthcare related profession so we know that the information she gave us feels completely off.
2) Attitude
Started off courteous and friendly for the initial week. Then started to be more aloof and indifferent as her stay progressed.
I) Will be very impatient when feeding baby especially during night times.
We latch baby first and inform her when we are ready for her to help bottle feed baby our stored breadt milk so that she has more time to rest. But when she feed baby she will force the teat in and shake baby excessively.
After bottle force feeding my baby she will hand back an actively awake baby to my wife who is still pumping her breast milk. So my wife has still has to soothe baby to sleep even after finishing pumping her milk.
II) asked me to buy new 2.5L kettle to boil water to cook the herbal bath for my wife so she can one shot cook the whole bath when we have a working 1.2L kettle that is brand new in the room itself.
- refused to do this and told her we can just use the existing kettle twice to achieve the same effect.
Ended up she used one of our soup pots to cook the herbal bath instead.
III) not proactive in teaching parents. Just do for you and expect you to learn by observing only.
3) Wasteful with ingredients
Made 2-3 trips every week to the market to buy ingredients.
Each purchase was around 200-300sgd initially then started ramping up towards the later half of the month she stayed with us.
Initially was cooking extra meals for my parents as well so the additional costs to feed 4-5 pax (my parents me and my wife + her) were very reasonable.
But my parents eventually decided not to be included as they do not eat as much.
She cooks 2-3dishes most meals with 1 soup (either lunch or dinner).
The wife has an extra soup on the meals that did not include the soup she cooked but this is a pre-prepared soup bag that we already bought and she just needs to boil.
Toward the end we were spending nearly 400sgd for each grocery run eventhough less people were eating? When I asked how come she needs so much ingredients and costs so much she said the 400 included some of my mum's stuff.
I actually accompanied her and my mum during this particular grocery run and noted that we scanned all my mum's things (snacks etc) first and it only amounts to 30-40sgd.
After I questioned her regarding the above she never asked me again to get groceries instead opting to go through my mum instead so the later grocery bills I don't even have a definite value.
reasons for getting new supplies given to my mum: vegetable has frozen in the fridge and cannot be used ?!?! This is for vegetables put into cold section not freezer.
Also noted by my mother - leftovers from the day she cooked being thrown out immediately.
Also noted my wife's milo gao kosong down to last satchet within 1 week of her stay.
- just bought and opened 1 full pack and made 1 satchet before she was admitted to hospital
My parents and I don't touch my wife's milo.
She also told us to buy milo to boost my wife's BM production but always only bring longan tea up for my wife, meanwhile the milo only continues to disappear.
4) Gossip
Talked about Violetray's experience but from her POV within her first week of coming to our household.
This should have been a redflag in hindsight but we persisted cause we were hopeful and she honestly wasnt so bad initially.
5) Not worth what you pay for
Definitely overcharging for her services.
Charged us 5.5k for 1st month as it was initially projected to extend through CNY period. (PH surcharge) which we thought was fair.
4.2k for 2nd month which is also around market rate for freelance nanny.
Ended up we terminated her before CNY.
Also told her within 1st week of her stay that we do not want to extend to 2nd month.
On the final day of her stay still insist that we need to pay 5.5k total for first month even though it did not include CNY period??
Then cites the extra was because of lost income from cancelling the 2nd month.- we gave early notice though??
Overall her duties were expected to be caring for my wife and baby - food, clothing, sheer etc. Ensuring that my wife's recovery is good and smooth and she has enough rest.
- can confidently say she only achieved less than half of her duties.
My wife is still tired and does not have much sleep due to needing to put baby to sleep.
We also have a maid that helps a lot with cleaning up the crockery that she uses for cooking. So she has more time to look after my wife and kid.
If this is the standard of service for a confinement nanny. I might as well just order pre-prepared meals i.e. tianwei. And hire a helper
Overall costs also cheaper that way.
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I'm sure some people will say why didn't we change sooner if our experience was bad.
1) some help is still better than no help. Not saying that everyday was terrible but for what we paid for we were expecting more.
2) we do not know many other nannies. It is very hard to find one almost immediately and there will always be doubt now that we experienced one that has good and bad reviews about her. There is a chance the next nanny will be worse than her. + all out efforts are on baby and mummy we don't have the time to research another nanny.
Takeaway points for people reading this:
1) Please take all negative reviews seriously - if they can do it once to someone else they can do it to you too. Deposit is painful to part with but will save you the heartache and headache to follow.
2) set clear goals and expectations with the nanny before you engage her.
So she knows what you expect and you can clearly tell them if you feel you are being shortchanged.
Thread 'Confinement nanny to avoid - Wong Sxxx Hxx (Hua Jie) https://singaporemotherhood.com/forum/threads/confinement-nanny-to-avoid-wong-sxxx-hxx-hua-jie.300350/
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