OK, so there's more update now with my housegirl situation. The in-laws of my housegirl did not allow for their probinsiyana daughter to come to Manila, mostly because it means her education will drag out longer than necessary. Completely understable, but still an inconvenient truth...
Anyway, another option has surfaced. What if we allow her to bring her son with her and stay with us from Monday to Friday (or sometimes Saturday morning)? Let's break that down into a list of pros and cons -
PROS
- She's very trustworthy; as in, I can trust her with money, jewelry, food, and basically everything and anything in my small household. And if you employ someone to be in your house by her lonesome all day long, you better have trust as the number 1 requirement.
- She's willing to be alone in the condo (or in this case, be with her son alone in the condo). Not a lot of maids are willing to do that, apparently, and I learned this yesterday from a coworker. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but it is quite a challenge to be alone all day, everyday, save for a few minutes of interaction with me and Dennis at the start and end of each day. It takes a certain kind of personality to be able to thrive in a situation like that, and this lovely housegirl of mine is one such personality. She is content and quite used to being alone, with no one to talk to (at least no one of adult age). It's another value she brings to the table.
- She cooks really well. In Dennis' words, she's the best cook he's ever had.
- She can be relied on to do a good job with the cleaning and washing.
- She's been with my family for ages, and because of that, I can entrust her to be my eyes and ears, when later on when we have a baby and I have to employ a yaya I may not know personally (I have to be realistic), I can count on her to look out for my family's best interest and make sure the yaya toes the line. I don't know how else to explain it but she's very good for my peace of mind.
CONS
- The son will be in our care, and will be our responsibility. While I'm sure she won't allow any harm to fall onto her son, if the kid gets sick, he is our responsibility. One way to mitigate this con is immunization, and I plan to check on what the kid has gotten (and has not gotten) so far in terms of vaccine. If needed, I'll pay for the additional vaccines, if only to make sure he doesn't fall seriously ill when in our household.
- Her attention might be split, hence it may take her longer to do her work. For now, at least, this isn't a big issue, since she's free most of the time, given the small amount of work needed to maintain our 124 sqm condo. She's mostly done with her work by 1:30 or 2pm in the afternoon, and she can afford to watch tv or take a nap for an hour or two, before starting dinner prep at around 4:30.
- The son is 2 years old, and as my officemates call it, still at the terrible age of being loud, rambunctious and very capable of breaking things in the condo. While I doubt the high incidence of this, it's nothing that a bit of childproofing can't do. Also, my mother in law has had experience of help bringing in their children to live in their property. From her (and Dennis') observation, their kids are not like the kids of the owners of the house. Their kids tend to know their place and be more behaved. I don't have firsthand experience with this so I really wouldn't know. This is the one "con" that I really don't have a hard solution for, so I guess we can just figure this out as we go along. For instance, if you've seen my place, you can close the kitchen swing door and keep the kid on the other side of the condo - the kitchen/ maid's quarter's area, which is farthest from our room. Thereby minimizing the noise level...
So there. That pretty much sums up the situation. Dennis says, after considering everything, he's willing to offer a trial period and see how it pans out. Hopefully the situation ends up win-win for both parties. I can tell she doesn't want to quit her job as much as possible. I know the extra income comes in handy for her small family; plus, if we do allow her to bring her child along, it's the same income level for her, for less expense. We do want to keep her as much as possible too, given the list of pros above. So I hope this situation does work out and we don't regret it.
For now, at least, I think this is our best alternative. Keep your fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!
2 comments:
in jakarta, one of our housemaids had her child with her. she'd babywrap him and have him hanging off her back while doing house chores. it was actually very cute haha. and truth be told, i never heard his voice at all! i think your mom-in-law and dennis are right. since it's not their house, they know their place. whereas if it were your kid or a relative's kid who knows that they're in common territory, they may be a bit more comfortable thus, mas malikot :)
plus, given the times you are at home, you'll probably won't run into "noise problems" as you say. I mean, the loudest they'll ever be is if they cry, which means something is wrong naman. kids just don't shout of nowhere anyway :) clark, who is three, is mostly quiet unless something happens to him or he wants something. and I would think your maid will be mindful of her child naman to let him go running around if ever.
i think the trial period will be a good thing. you'll never really know until the kid is there :) and besides, having a kid in the household just makes it a little brighter, no matter who's it is (sana cute sya. JUST KIDDING! haha) :D
Just saw this comment, Kayers :) Yup he'll be here in about 3 weeks' time and I hope the transition won't be difficult. And I agree about a child brightening up a home, ESP since we wanna have a baby na din :) and my maid is pretty, so I'm hoping that also means her baby is cute hahahahaha
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