Yaya hunting has been a roller coaster ride. After the perfect yaya left last October, we already had 2 replacement nannies. And because they can’t keep up with the perfect yaya’s standards, we are always searching and on the look out for a new one. There are good and bad days, good times because I can see that they are really trying but bad times outnumbered the good ones.
I don’t want to be mean but with the present one, even the simplest instructions can’t be followed. Just a simple mental note of the times Gwen slept and ate, she can’t recall. Common sense is really not common after all…
And there’s no hard labor involved, mind you. On weekdays, we (I, Jeff and Gwen) wake up at 8 am, I bathe Gwen while yaya holds Gwen. After taking a bath, yaya feeds her while we prepare to go to work. We go home at 6 pm on most days, sometimes Friday is our date night but we’re usually home by 9 pm. And as soon as we arrive home, we pick up Gwen from her and play in our room. When we’re at the office, all she has to do is to take care and play with Gwen. We live with my mother so my mother takes care of the yaya’s lunch, merienda and dinner. She doesn’t do the cooking. On weekends, Gwen is with us too if we don’t have any errands to make. Aside from taking care of Gwen, all’s that left for her to do is clean and sterilize the bottles and wash Gwen’s clothes. All we expect is to do a little sweeping and cleaning of the house for Gwen’s sake since she has plenty of lull times. She has plenty of rest than us in our office.
Sometimes, our married life is affected. We would often argue on how to make things work with the yaya, because Jeff doesn’t like changing yayas often. I, on the other hand, easily gets dismayed. But I just hate the fact that even if I’m short-tempered, I can’t just lash out on the yaya of her wrongdoings. I should ALWAYS be gentle to her when pointing out her mistakes even though my blood is boiling because I’m afraid that she might hurt Gwen in return.
Frustrated, I’m just praying to God to grant us another one who is compassionate, knows how to really take care of babies, hygienic and disciplined. My frustration comes to a point that I want to resign from work so that I will be the one to take care of Gwen….
I understand your situation. Nowadays it is really difficult to find a good yaya. It seems most yaya these days really are not committed to the their tasks. That’s why the turn-over is so high.
I feel your frustration. It really is hard changing yayas every now and then because of all the time and effort you have to reinvest and the trust you have to both build. However, it’s equally frustration also to have someone so incompetent.
I take this chance to once again be thankful of my yayas and my standards are pretty high too! I guess I got lucky. Hope you also get lucky for keeps the next time around!
Finding a heaven-sent yaya this days is at times close to impossible. Gone are the days when yayas become part of the family because of the dedication and love they give to their “alaga” and the family.
Monster maid experiences, I have many. The last one we had does her shopping here in the house when we are away. She stocks up not just on food, but on clothes and underwear as well. We also suspect that her boyfriend security guard was the one that broke into our aunt’s home next door cause the timing was really perfect.