Day 1 Without Mus

Back breaking as it is, it is rewarding to see the house cleaner and neater as we ourselves tend to put in real effort to keep the house a home. We see it as something we can do with love. We are able to do it wholeheartedly.

Maids, on the other hand, consider themselves as outsiders (even if we treat them well) do it because they have to, not because they want to. There is no real concerted effort to do more for the household as they consider it not theirs. Of course, there are exceptions.

It was different when we had Ani 5 years ago. She did all she could to make the house her home. She even took effort to learn English and teach our sons their school worm, then Jordan was in kindergarten while Johan literally spent his first few years with her, learning his numbers and alphabets. Although Mus was to take care of Joey as well, she took no effort to sing or teach him his numbers or ABCs.

I spent some time tidying up Mus' former room, our spare room downstairs. It was so dusty in places she did not see nor took the effort to clean. There was a note for a Mustafa, a new found boyfriend. One wonders.

In a way, I am glad to have my household back.

A New Beginning?

Our domestic helper from Banda Aceh, Muzaini, has returned home after being with us for 4 years, mainly looking after the housekeeping and Joey. This leaves us to do everything on our own. Derrick will continue being chief cook and bus driver for the boys. I take over most of the other duties of cleaning the house and doing the laundry.

The good things about being without a helper are :-

~ complete privacy, no 3rd party at home

~ the house comes cleaner and neater. I have already cleaned up our storeroom. It is now neater and there is more room in there.

~ we save some RM1000 a month

Indeed, it is a new beginning for us. The boys have been told to be more responsible and to help out, i.e.,

~ to keep all their stuff

~ to put all dirty clothes into the laundry basket instead of leaving it to a 3rd person to pick up after them.

~ to wash their own school shoes

~ to wash their own plate and cutlery after meals

Perhaps it is a blessing in disguise as Indonesia has called for a ban on maids to Malaysia.