baby sitting woes

allow me to bitch about my mil’s maid

my mil has a bloody demanding maid. arggghhh!! this maid is supposed to take care of blub when he turns about 3 months. its already been agreed that we will pay her an extra rm150 on top of her current gaji of rm450. the rm150 was actually paid to her earlier when she was taking care of another cucu. in the last 4 months, although she no longer takes care of that particular cucu, my mil has continued to pay her the rm150 based on the agreement that she will take care of blub later. so kira bonus lah for the maid right? not taking care of anyone but still getting the rm150 for the last 4 months.

well, guess what? little miss maid has decided to balloon her head up & demand for an additional rm200 to take care of the baby. that’s rm200 on top of the rm150 that shes been getting.

wtf right.

in total, she will be paid rm800 with the breakdown as follows:

- rm350 initial pay (she came into malaysia 5yrs ago)
- rm150 babysitting gaji for taking care of cucu #1
- rm100 a pay raise from my mil when miss maid’s employment contract was extended for a year (june08 to june09)
- rm200 babysitting gaji for taking care of blub

i am so anger about this. heres why:

i) she came into my mil’s household as a pitiful maid who was treated rather inhumanely by her previous boss. she was thin & boy did she hit the jackpot coming into this home. here, shes allowed many liberties: she can nap, she can chitchat with her boss, allowed to have a hp, to have a day off every now & again etc. & now, well now, shes turned into this big-headed, pijak-kepala-boss kinda maid. argggghhh!!! she can SHOUT at my mil can you believe that? she even has the cheek to scold my mil if she wanted to.

ii) she already agreed to take care of blub for rm150. now shes going back on her word. its not so much our paying her the rm200 as my mil will only ask us to pay THAT rm200 while she herself continues to pay the rm150, IF we agree to paying the maid rm200. so at the end of the day, for us, its just an added rm50 damage to our finances.

iii) she threatened not to look after blub if we don’t pay her the rm200. wtf!!!!!!!!! in other words, its non-negotiable lah right. in her own words “oh kalau macam tu, saya tak mau jaga lah.”

iv) i hate hate hate being forced into paying her just because (a) she asked for it (b) we’re afraid that if we don’t pay her that exact amount i.e. if we manage to negotiate it down to say rm150 (mind you, this is rm150 on top of the previous rm150 ok), then, she might do something to blub.

v) i hate hate hate hate hate thinking that if she has this “i’m in charge” attitude then maybe as parents, we cant even tell her how to take care of our child. you know, basic things like “don’t ever bring my child out of the house without my permission”. & believe you me, she has done this with cucu #1 many times.

other than this rm200-for-blub issue, apparently she has also decided to kira her gaji on a daily basis i.e. she went back to indonesia in december & came back sometime late in the month so she only worked like 3 days in december. come payday in january, she claimed payment for the 3 days of work in december. so berkira or what???

i was so angry that i told the husband that here are my conditions. we will agree to pay her the rm200 but:

i) we will pay her rm200 & not rm150+rm200.
ii) the rm150 stops now because shes not taking care of anyone. the new pay will begin in october (when blub is sent to her).
iii) for the first 4 months of taking care of blub, she will only be paid rm50 because for the last 4 months she has been getting rm150 for nothing.
iv) the rm200 will be pro-rated based on how many days she takes care of blub i.e. in october & december respectively, she will only take care of blub for 2 weeks in each of those months.

inhumane? not really. it just means that in total she will be paid only rm650. isn’t that quite a lot? other maids only get rm500 right? she says shes asking for more because shes taking care also of an 86yr old lady (the husband’s grandma) but then again, when she joined the household, she knew this already. and, the 86yr old grandma is capable of doing almost everything for herself. the maid is just there to keep an eye on her. & ya, maybe listen to her nagging. other than that, shes capable of feeding, bathing, shitting, walking up&down the stairs, even carrying little babies all by herself. she just needs to have someone around with her, but that’s it. and on top of all this, this old lady has other children who she visits on a rotational basis. so in any one month, she may be away for a week or two.

this maid gets to nap every afternoon. she sleeps in the same room with the old lady but it seems like she pulak is the owner of the room. she says she is praying but hello, do you lock the room for AN HOUR to pray ah? that’s five times one hour a day isit? so every day she gets 5hours of prayer time isit? whenever the grandma needs to use the ensuite bathroom, she has to wait for the maid to finish up & unlock the room door. either that or she has to walk up 2 flights of stairs to get to another bathroom. i have many many muslim friends including a muslim sister. firstly, no one has ever needed to pray in a locked room. in fact, as long as i don’t bother them, i can even be in the same room while they pray. secondly, tak pernah pun i dengar people pray for an hour for each prayer time.

this maid also argues that shes been here for 5yrs so she should be getting more than the newer maids. ok, true but why she want to sibuk about other maids? she wants to get paid more then she leave the country & come back in lah. but then you'll only be paid rm500 & not rm600 which you're getting now izenit? so cant you just be bloody grateful & not demand for rm800. biyatch.

oh yes, & have i mentioned that this one’s gotta mouth on her? i once called out to her & she SHOUTED back at me. so i shouted right back at her & told her to speak nicely. why? no manners ah?? another time, she told me that i was not a good person because i didn’t ask her if she had eaten. what the fucking hell… she, the maid, never asked us whether we had eaten also but we must ask her that??? wtffff…

i don’t know why my mil puts up with her.

anyways, i have expressed my anger & concerns to both the husband & the mil. so, the conclusion is & i hate to say this, we are gonna pay her rm200 as demanded (shit) but her contract will expire in june09 at which time i can tell her fuck off (whoopieee) & then we’re gonna share with mil on the cost of getting a new maid. yeah, agency costs as well as monthly salary.

good riddance to bad rubbish.