musiclover220
New Member
I just delivered my second boy in early July 2023. A month before in June, the original confinement nanny (Jenny Yap - 芬姨) whom i engaged earlier informed that she fell from the stairs and cracked her kneecap bone. She recommended her cousin (Lim Siew Thye - 贞/珍姐) who was also a confinement nanny with 10+ years of experience. As time was not on my side, I accepted the recommendation.
This was the beginning of our 28-day nightmare. As a second-time mum, I was barely able to handle the ridiculous antics and unprofessionalism from this nanny auntie, but I can imagine how first-time mums will be smoked and taken advantage by this auntie.
(1) Unprofessional
On the very first day of my confinement, auntie told us that she could not squat because of her weak knees, and said she could only sit down to clothe and bathe the baby. As a result, she handled baby near the floor level - baby’s things were left on the floor, e.g. she leaves the milk bottle on the floor and sits on the floor to feed baby. She also said she has a bad back, and that she preferred a proper bed rather than the foldable spring mattress which we provided as she has difficulties getting out of bed from the floor. Over the course of the first week, she subsequently informed us about her other “cannot-s”, e.g. cannot bend, cannot sit/stand for long, cannot see properly. I understand that most confinement ladies are of the age where they will experience joint pains, but this nanny was at a whole new level.
I requested her to cut my baby’s nails at the end of the second week when i realised his nails were sooooo long under the mittens. She said one word to be bluntly - “no”. I asked why and she said it was tradition to only cut his nails after full month. I told her i don’t need to follow tradition and I want the nails to be cut now. Only then did she say her eyesight was no good, and that she was afraid of hurting the baby with the nail clipper. She said the previous baby that she handled bled when she tried to cut his nails. I told her I have a Hakaa (electric nail file which will not hurt baby) and she said she did not know how to use it, and did not attempt to learn or even look at the Hakaa. This was surprising for an experience confinement nanny.
The worse thing was that she was on her handphones almost 24/7. Yes, she carries two handphones. She either carries my baby in one hand, and watches videos on her handphone in another hand, or she is plugged in on one ear with her earphones to listen to Whatsapp messages or watch videos whole day long. She even blasts her handphone and watches videos when she is cooking. I understand that confinement nannies have to take business calls and contact their families, but this auntie was terrible - she was on the phone with other nannies to gossip about their mummies/babies, and to discuss whether to lend money to a gambler friend etc. I have photo and video proof of these, but i decided not to show them as it will expose my baby unnecessarily. You can ask me for it privately if you wish to see it.
One day, she even had the ball to ask me to let her go out to buy lottery while my baby was asleep. She told me she had struck lottery and won $2000 the week before by betting on numbers related to my baby's jaundice number.
(2) Unhygienic
Saying she lacks in hygiene is an understatement. She reuses the same milk bottle for night feeds despite my repeated reminders not to do so. I have 8 milk bottles at hand for her, but she chooses to reuse the bottle for reasons unknown to me - perhaps so that she can wash fewer bottles.
I told her on day one that she is free to use my washing machine to wash baby’s dirty laundry and that I don’t expect her to hand wash anything, except for laundry which is stained - she just has to scrub the stained portion and throw that piece of clothing in the washing machine. Even so, she uses only ONE hanky for the entire day for my baby. I have voiced this out to her several times, but she continues to use that same dirty, wet and smelly hanky that has my baby’s vomited milk. I was the one who had to constantly change my baby’s hanky.
Her food preparation methods were also extremely unhygienic. There was one afternoon when I walked into the kitchen and found three pieces of lettuce balled up together with the soiled kitchen cloth used to clean the kitchen table top and liquids from raw food. Thinking that it was for her own consumption (as she separately prepares her own food), i removed the lettuce from the kitchen cloth and washed it with water before putting it nicely on the chopping board which she left on the kitchen table top. These lettuce eventually found their way to my plate for lunch. She used it as a base on which she served the chicken chop. I finished the chicken chop but did not eat the lettuce.
Late that night, i was awakened due to a bad stomachache which didn’t subside, and i also had two rounds of vomiting and four diarrhoea runs. I rushed myself to a 24-hour clinic and was told by the doctor that I had food poisoning. Only when i tried to recount what might have caused the food poisoning that i remembered about the lettuce. I spoke politely and as a matter-of-factly to her the next day on this issue, and as with all other communications that I had with her, she was extremely defensive. She argued that if it is food poisoning, then my husband would have gotten it, as we share food sometimes. She also said that it cannot be that i eat dirty food during lunch and only get the negative reaction so late at night.
To explain, during confinement, I only ate the food she cooked, and lactation cookies (which i have been eating for a month without issues). I don’t even eat the things my mother bought from outside. So her food is definitely the root cause of the food poisoning. Also, I was the only one who had the chicken chop served with the lettuce which had already been cross-contaminated - my husband ate packed lunch that day. My husband and I ate the same dinner food cooked by her, but he did not have food poisoning. The only logical conclusion was the lettuce. And it also takes time for the bacteria to build up in the gut from lunch, which might explain why I only developed a reaction to it at night.
This was the beginning of our 28-day nightmare. As a second-time mum, I was barely able to handle the ridiculous antics and unprofessionalism from this nanny auntie, but I can imagine how first-time mums will be smoked and taken advantage by this auntie.
(1) Unprofessional
On the very first day of my confinement, auntie told us that she could not squat because of her weak knees, and said she could only sit down to clothe and bathe the baby. As a result, she handled baby near the floor level - baby’s things were left on the floor, e.g. she leaves the milk bottle on the floor and sits on the floor to feed baby. She also said she has a bad back, and that she preferred a proper bed rather than the foldable spring mattress which we provided as she has difficulties getting out of bed from the floor. Over the course of the first week, she subsequently informed us about her other “cannot-s”, e.g. cannot bend, cannot sit/stand for long, cannot see properly. I understand that most confinement ladies are of the age where they will experience joint pains, but this nanny was at a whole new level.
I requested her to cut my baby’s nails at the end of the second week when i realised his nails were sooooo long under the mittens. She said one word to be bluntly - “no”. I asked why and she said it was tradition to only cut his nails after full month. I told her i don’t need to follow tradition and I want the nails to be cut now. Only then did she say her eyesight was no good, and that she was afraid of hurting the baby with the nail clipper. She said the previous baby that she handled bled when she tried to cut his nails. I told her I have a Hakaa (electric nail file which will not hurt baby) and she said she did not know how to use it, and did not attempt to learn or even look at the Hakaa. This was surprising for an experience confinement nanny.
The worse thing was that she was on her handphones almost 24/7. Yes, she carries two handphones. She either carries my baby in one hand, and watches videos on her handphone in another hand, or she is plugged in on one ear with her earphones to listen to Whatsapp messages or watch videos whole day long. She even blasts her handphone and watches videos when she is cooking. I understand that confinement nannies have to take business calls and contact their families, but this auntie was terrible - she was on the phone with other nannies to gossip about their mummies/babies, and to discuss whether to lend money to a gambler friend etc. I have photo and video proof of these, but i decided not to show them as it will expose my baby unnecessarily. You can ask me for it privately if you wish to see it.
One day, she even had the ball to ask me to let her go out to buy lottery while my baby was asleep. She told me she had struck lottery and won $2000 the week before by betting on numbers related to my baby's jaundice number.
(2) Unhygienic
Saying she lacks in hygiene is an understatement. She reuses the same milk bottle for night feeds despite my repeated reminders not to do so. I have 8 milk bottles at hand for her, but she chooses to reuse the bottle for reasons unknown to me - perhaps so that she can wash fewer bottles.
I told her on day one that she is free to use my washing machine to wash baby’s dirty laundry and that I don’t expect her to hand wash anything, except for laundry which is stained - she just has to scrub the stained portion and throw that piece of clothing in the washing machine. Even so, she uses only ONE hanky for the entire day for my baby. I have voiced this out to her several times, but she continues to use that same dirty, wet and smelly hanky that has my baby’s vomited milk. I was the one who had to constantly change my baby’s hanky.
Her food preparation methods were also extremely unhygienic. There was one afternoon when I walked into the kitchen and found three pieces of lettuce balled up together with the soiled kitchen cloth used to clean the kitchen table top and liquids from raw food. Thinking that it was for her own consumption (as she separately prepares her own food), i removed the lettuce from the kitchen cloth and washed it with water before putting it nicely on the chopping board which she left on the kitchen table top. These lettuce eventually found their way to my plate for lunch. She used it as a base on which she served the chicken chop. I finished the chicken chop but did not eat the lettuce.
Late that night, i was awakened due to a bad stomachache which didn’t subside, and i also had two rounds of vomiting and four diarrhoea runs. I rushed myself to a 24-hour clinic and was told by the doctor that I had food poisoning. Only when i tried to recount what might have caused the food poisoning that i remembered about the lettuce. I spoke politely and as a matter-of-factly to her the next day on this issue, and as with all other communications that I had with her, she was extremely defensive. She argued that if it is food poisoning, then my husband would have gotten it, as we share food sometimes. She also said that it cannot be that i eat dirty food during lunch and only get the negative reaction so late at night.
To explain, during confinement, I only ate the food she cooked, and lactation cookies (which i have been eating for a month without issues). I don’t even eat the things my mother bought from outside. So her food is definitely the root cause of the food poisoning. Also, I was the only one who had the chicken chop served with the lettuce which had already been cross-contaminated - my husband ate packed lunch that day. My husband and I ate the same dinner food cooked by her, but he did not have food poisoning. The only logical conclusion was the lettuce. And it also takes time for the bacteria to build up in the gut from lunch, which might explain why I only developed a reaction to it at night.