Maid in Malaysia

I don't know how many would agree with me, but we working moms certainly depend on our domestic helpers, or infamously known as the "maid" to take care of our daily chores and most importantly the routines of our children. Can you believe it (especially those without the extended network called Wan/Opah/Nenek/Tok/Nana) that we actually put 100% faith into the hands of our maids to take care of our precious little ones everytime we leave for work?

But having domestic help not only challenge your stress level, but also your health level. Eventually, these two are interconnected by the way. You never put high expectation on the maid anyways. The least you expect is that your kids are well-fed, the laundry is done, and the house is, to say the least, swept. But when you called home and your four-year-old is providing a detailed CNN-like report on her caretaker watching those Chinese/Indonesian/Thai serials since lunch till 5pm, and been postponing your daughter's request for milk and her abang's request for cokodok for snacks..which mother, tell me my friends, will not scream??

Like one of those Azean Irdawaty's Cerekerama line.."you made my blood go upstairs!!" - that's what my maid has been doing to me. I actually prepared her a daily list of what-to-dos, with specific sequence, responding the the fact that she always "forgets" my instructions. But what can you say if she said "saya lupa tengok jadual itu buk!". My blood is now going up the sky!!

I don't like to scold people, but the things she did just made me boiled inside. I never raised my voice before, but with her, I have been transformed into those mean-old employer babbling with snickering looks everytime she comes home to check the kitchen. She doesn't have to go anywhere else because that would stir another explosion. And that is me, every single working day...counting the days till her contract expires, hoping to get a better replacement, but deep down inside, there's always the doubt that all maids are from hell.