hiring a maid

i was chatting with my aunties a couple of weekends ago and upon learning that i'm going to have twins, they shared with me a brilliant idea (well, the idea is brilliant according to them, not for me though) on how i should go about handling the twins; as in who to baby-sit them after i finish my maternity leave.

they suggested that i should hire an Indon maid, it's definitely much more cheaper than sending the twins to the baby-sitter. the current baby-sitter market rate that i know from my colleagues are ranging from rm550-650 for daycare only and rm750-850 for day & nite care, per month, per baby. baby-sitter only takes care of the baby and that's it. we still gotta supply them the babies' daily neccesities and after adding all the cost up, all that would cost a bomb to an ordinary employee like myself & cl. so there they are, bringing me the maid-hiring suggestion. not only the fee is cheaper, a maid also takes care of the babies and helps around with the housework and probably cooks too. that would help ease my burden a lot. if i'm concern about having the maid alone at home with the 2 kids, i can always send her to my mum's house which is just across the road from mine. she can be stationed there from morning till evening and i could fetch 3 of them back to my house again after work. this routine will be repeated daily.

as convenient as it might sounds, the idea doesn't sound a bit compelling to me and my mum at all! why, my mum has gone through her days with the maid and she has vowed never to have maid anymore for the rest of her live. that maid would be our first and last one we'd hire. thus, we both are not even considering what my 2 aunties were suggesting. interesting stories about this maid of ours will be in another post.

both aunties of mine even did a calculation on how much i could save up if i get a maid for 3 consecutive years; renewing her contract for another 2 years after the first. money is one thing...never-ending headaches & problems are another thing. after hearing horror stories from those who've maid at homes and encountering one myself, it's a big no no. i can't imagine while you hope to ease your burden from hiring a maid, in the end, you end up solving problems created by her. i would rather send my twins to the baby-sitter, i haven't decided whether to send for day care only or day & nite care (day & nite care would be my choice, if only my financial situation allows it). or may be i can be a full time stay at home mum..who knows. i have about 6 more months to decide what's best.

by the way, i found one confinement centre that provides child care too. day care for rm500 and day & nite care for rm900. probably i can do some bargaining with the boss and get some cheaper rate for sending 2 babies. i'm going to visit the home again next month and place my booking if everything goes well.