i hired Mei Qing during my CL in May. My nightmare started too:-
1) Before she left, she cut the rubber on my front load washing machine!!! I don't know is she purposely or she cut it because it is dirty. no common sense at all!!
2) She told me no need to wake bb up for milk. that time my bb has jaundice, kept sleeping.
3) most disgusting part is she put her comb n toothbrush in the kitchen drawer, together with spoons n forks!!
4) She can't multitask. Eating takes 20-30 mins!! even me also eat faster than her.
5) She ll expect u to look after bb yr own. there was a night bb cranky until 11om++, she passed the bb to me n told bb "nah, give u bel to yr mummy!"
6) There was a night i noticed she put the tablecloth into a pot that we used to cook soup n dessert!! oh my god! thenxt day used the same pot to cook dessert again!
7) She can't mop n sweep the floor well. she won't mop the floor for u unless u ask..
many more stories with her during these 28 days. btw, she is indonesia chinese, so maybe different culture.
Hi, I'm sorry to hear about your bad experience with aunty meiqing.
And I'm also very surprise about your bad experience with her...I actually count myself lucky she did not put up such an act during my employment of her service.
1) I am also using a front load washer. I taught her how to use it right. Did you confront her what did she actually do to your washer?
2) My baby was on total breastfeeding. Fully Latch on. No bottle feeding needed... I set the rules on first day and told her my stand on breastfeeding, and I even set alarm clock (every 2 hours throughout the night) to wake myself and baby up for breastfeeding. She said no need to do that too, (maybe she said it becos my alarm clock disturb her sleep) but why do I care right? I just do what I think is right. And after a while she is used to my strict breastfeeding style. Btw, My boy also has jaundice.
3)putting her comb and brush in the kitchen drawer, I must agree with you, very unhygienic. You should just point out to her and make sure this will nvr happen again. Actually, I remembered very well, she always placed her comb n toothbrush in the toilet next to sink....I will be extremely mad if she did the same. If I were you I be screaming on top of my lungs. I'm not a quiet person. I'm actually very direct and I could even be mean when she does not do the things right. So right from the beginning, it's quite tough trying to get her to get use to my kitchen rules and my style of living...like mopping kitchen floor daily is a must. Other part of the house do so at her own discretion as baby and me are her first priority. I'm a housewife with a then 3- year old girl, with no helper at home, but I sure know to tell her what to do and what not to do. Though first week was tough but things got better after all the "education"...she's also very flexible and open to accepting modern belief...etc. I do not like the old fashioned way.
4) I've no comments about her multi-tasking skill.... I think I didn't even realise she took so longggg to eat...
5) I've a different opinion on this. I'm often so jealous of her being able to calm my crying baby.... Even at 2am, she's still carrying him around coaxing him to sleep as she told me to quickly rest cos she knows 2 hours later I hv to get up again to feed him. My baby is extra cranky at night, one week before his full month. (This happened during the last week of her stay...and we all think that my baby knows my CL is leaving soon...) well, I already mentioned before, I would rather let my baby cry to sleep, than allowing her to rock and carry him to zzzz. But in the last few days I once, allowed her to carry baby to sleep....I even found both of them sleeping on the living room sofa! Though I shake my head, I was still very grateful to her.
6) kitchen hygiene is very impt. At first I am also headache but it's becos she's confused which is table cloth n which is drying cloth....cos my kitchen cloth are all quite look-a-like. I didn't pay much attn to the kitchen, but I'm glad I didn't get food poisoning. Also, did I mention about her cooking skill? I rate it above average with the exception of fish porridge. Apparantly, her skill of removing fish bone isn't very good. So we ALL are being extra careful eating that day. After that, I told her NOT to cook fish porridge ANYMORE. Well, we dun like EVERY dish she cooked but mostly her cooking is satisfactory. She cooked confinement food just for me, and other non confinement dishes for my hubby and my girl. And will advise my hubby not to eat too much into my dishes for being too heaty. But my hubby really loves confinement food. Also, she has to be careful in cooking for my girl, as for the first ten days of her employment, my girl was having a bad case of stomach flu! She helped washed her buttock (up to 6-10 times) a day! After that she washed her hands with soap and the sanitised with dettol before carrying my baby, so I was very pleased. (The dettol was hubby's idea, to place one bottle in every corner of house, becos of the stomach flu virus in my family during my confinement. Actually, My husband and I caught the stomach flu too. I was hospitalised again (due to stomach flu), and spent two nights in the hospital with my baby and my CL! Meiqing was strong, she is the only one in my family that didn't catch the virus.
7) I didn't take note abt the frequency of sweeping and mopping part, becos I'm less particular abt such. Maybe also becos my hse is very small.... One sheet of the magic clean wiper can Keep my entire hse dust free. So I let her use her own discretion, she did various housework for me, like sweeping, washing clothes, washing dishes, folding clothes, picking up the mess of toys left behind by my girl...etc. but lost importantly, she finds time to play with my girl when I'm breastfeeding, telling her that now she has to be understanding that mummy is busy with baby..etc. my girl is actually very close with her and was really sad when she has to leave.
Actually, thanks for sharing your experience with meiqing. I didn't read your comments until now, cos my friend was asking me for recommendation...and then I chance about your sharing. So I also forwarded your experience of meiqing with her. it's impt to share such experience so That my frd, as well as other mummies can make more accurate choice when sourcing for CLs. I'm sure that my own review of meiqing is best according to my own experience with her. Which, after reading your experience, I felt so sorry that it's my recommendation you trusted and yet it didn't turn out well.
For other mummies looking for CL or now currently in confinement, don't be afraid to voice out your stand, what is acceptable and what's not. Most importantly, don't feel stressed out during your pregnancy and confinement.
And very sorry for my longgggg posting.