The New Maid & The New Law

I picked up my new replacement maid yesterday. She is the exact opposite of my previous maid. For a start, she is not the very bright type; she grew up in the rural kampong and with her shallow experience working as a domestic worker, she is a tough challenge for me to train.

Having Xiao Hong, the part-time maid from China and Karein, my previous maid, who were both very efficient in doing housework, I thought Maricel, my new maid wouldn't be too far off. But I was VERY wrong. Yesterday afternoon, after I bath Laetitia, I left the tub of water in the toilet, thinking that she will clear it when she sees it. This morning, the tub of water was still there! She didn't pour it away, she thought I wanted to keep the water!

There is more. I have a more 'sophisticated-looking' trash bin in the study room filled with nothing but discarded letters and bills. She didn't know that it is actually a rubbish bin. She cleared all the rubbish bins in the house but left that one untouched. When I told her that the content in the bin were rubbish and she has to clear them just like any other rubbish bins, she seemed bewildered.

Then I asked her to warm up the chilled milk in the food warmer, she stared at the steam sterilizer for sterilizing Laetitia's bottles and asked if I meant putting the chilled milk inside the sterilizer to warm. I almost fainted!

I have to practically demonstrate ALL the appliances for her to see, telling her verbally has proven to be somewhat insufficient.

OK, maybe I should look at the brighter side of things and focus on her good points, like.... She is soft-spoken, hence she should be unlikely to argue with me or my MIL. Her house don't have a telephone, which means she will not be talking on the phone so frequently, unlike Karein who had more calls than I do! She don't ask me for expensive household cleaners and gloves like Karein nor will she asks to switch TV channels for programs that she wanted to watch. She is the more "dai" type. Better lah, less scheming and manipulative, I hope.

Most importantly, Laetitia seems to be able to accept her quite readily. Just wish me luck with this maid lah.

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I just learnt from the maid agency that MOM had revised the FDW law. Now, even when your maid quit on you and wanted to go back, you also need to pay for her air-ticket, even though her contract is terminated prematurely by her, not you.

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If you think you can threaten your maid like what was shown in the TV, saying things like, "I send you back then you know hor!" Think again. Now the maid can just fly into Singapore and treat the job like a vacation. A vacation with free food and lodging! Anytime, she is fed up of working for you, she takes the next flight home and you are paying for that ticket! Don't expect her to be begging like seen from the TV, "No Mdm, please don't send me back. I am sorry, Mdm." She would mostly likely says, "Go back, go back lor. You think I like to work here meh!"

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Just WTF was MOM thinking when it lays down this law!!??

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Mr Government, before you want us to get the birth rate up, you better fix this first!

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