Yaya Gladys has been with us for more than a year. We like her very much because she loves Gwen and Gwen loves her as well. Gwen is always clean, smells fresh and happy when they are together. Gladys is one perfect yaya (almost), except for her chronic Extended Vacation Leaves.
She seldom goes out for day-offs. She’s a homebody, whenever we go out, she requests to be left at home which is fine with us, at least solo namin si Gwen. But when she takes a vacation which is like every 2 or 3 months (Nueva Ecija lang naman kaya malapit), nakoooo, she NEVER comes back on time. She usually goes home when there’s a long weekend, lagi nyang dahilan, mahirap sumakay. Worse, she never answers our text messages and phone calls when she’s away! Parang wala kaming pinagsamahan…. I always feel na nakikipagplastikan lang sa amin when she’s with us, tapos pag umuuwi na sa kanila, balewala na lang kami. I know I should not get affected but we treat her as a family, we took her to our family vacations, she eats what we eat, I buy her clothes, gives her transpo fees during her vacation, she’s one spoiled yaya.
Okay, enough ranting. Sorry but I need to vent this out.
So yeah, what makes ’em yayas stay anyway? Here are some of my observations.
- Salary – Of course, we all work for the money.
- Benefits – This is not just SSS, Pag-ibig and other government mandated benefits ha. This can include travel benefits with their employers, load cards, eating out in expensive restaurants, movie passes, able to take day-offs in a month more than the usual… One time my friend told me that she knows a helper that stays with her employer despite the 2,000 salary because she gets to meet celebrities naman, her employer works in a TV station. My nephew’s yaya stayed with them for 3 years kasi lagi syang sinasama sa mall, o di ba?
- Good relationship with their employers – If you treat them well, then they are more likely to stay.
- Comfortable living conditions – We had helpers in the past who left their employers because they were just sleeping in the couch, they sleep late and forced to wake up early because sa sala lang sila natutulog.
- NEED and WORTH – They stay because they still feel their worth within the family. My nephew’s yaya stayed for 2 years despite having a not-so-good relationship with my SIL because “naaawa daw sya sa alaga nya”. Ayaw daw nya iwan ng maliit pa.
One time, I heard Gladys tell Gwen, “Malaki ka na, hindi mo na kelangan si Ate”. It’s because the toddler is getting more independent each day, she wants to do everything on her own. Before she left, when I said that we’ll enroll Gwen in a summer class, Gladys told me, “Oo nga Ate, para may gawin naman kami dito sa bahay.” Maybe she’s bored already because she’s not required to do other household chores especially when we’re not at home. When Gwen takes her siesta, natutulog din sya katabi si Gwen which is fine with us kasi yun naman sabi namin sa kanya, wag nya iwan.
Why they leave:
- In search of greener pastures (higher salaries).
- Mahigpit sila Ate at Kuya (Sir at Mam).
- Employers mistreat them.
- They can’t handle their alaga, it’s either makulit, hard-headed, or just being pasaway. This is one reason why yayas of my nephews and nieces leave, masyado raw makulit, na-stress, haha.
- Not able to eat on time, or not enough food in the fridge to cook. This can happen especially if you’re both working, yaya is left with your children and she has no time to cook her own food.
- Employer doesn’t give SSS, Pag-ibig, Philhealth benefits. Here come’s Kasambahay Law, yaya knows her rights.
- This is funny and unbelievable, but a long time ago when I was still in college, all helpers in our neighborhood resigned all at once because they all want to work together in one house. They found a rich employer who can hire all of them as a cook, all-around, etc…
- Reasons like yaya will study and will take care of her parents or siblings, etc.
Can you relate Mommies? Comment back with your own yaya stories. I might publish your own stories in the future. =)
I agree with you, in fact, we all go for greener pasture. Hope you yaya thank you enough for she has a good employers
Nako, tama yan.. There seems to be a Yaya story everywhere I look (blogs!) Ako naman, my Yaya on shoty is well – mahilig magbakasyon. Kailee’s yaya who has been with us since Kailee was 1 month has only gone on vacation this year palang! Itong yaya ni Shoty, my gosh – kesyo kelangan umuwi and etc. Tapos like yours HINDI nagtetext manlang kung uuwi on time! YET tatawagan niya si Yaya ni Kailee to tell her all the details. Sabi ko nga eh, isang text lang kelangan ko to tell me when siya uuwi. Abusado talaga.. And this Thursday uuwi nanaman! She then complains to Kailee’s yaya na bakit di ko raw siya tinataasan ng sweldo – pano ko naman gagawin yun eh kung every month less than 30 days siyang nagtatrabaho sa akin at parating kelangan umuwi or whatever!!
ewan ko ba…
stress drilon i say..
i made a post on yaya politics:http://candishhh.blogspot.com/2013/03/kwentong-kasambahay.html
I am somewhat lucky my yaya stayed for 4 years, but sadly she had to left to get married. Tried two more after her but didn’t work out. Hirap maghanap ng trusted yaya nowadays.
I can very well relate to this. How many yayas have I had before my current one. We had a yaya who loved extended days off, a yaya who’s a compulsive liar, a yaya who’s overly sensitive, etc. We give our yayas 13th month pay, we bring them to the mall with us, they eat with us in restos and they watch movies with us. Hopefully,our current yaya will stay longer with us. She’s been with us for almost 3 years.
When my sister and I were younger, marami kaming napagdaanang yayas and helpers. Most of them left for good reasons naman but there’s this one that had been with us for many years na but she just left one day without warning and just left a letter. I was sad because she was like my ‘ate’ narin but parang ang dali lang sa kanya na iwan kami. But now I think I get her reason for leaving. Maybe she wanted to explore on her own and look for other/better opportunities. She was still ‘young’ then, after all 🙂
super relate!
sa dami ng unemployed sa pilipinas, bakit ang hirap makahanap ng matinong yaya!
Hay naku Mrs. B, I can totally relate to this story! The yaya of my son left just last week, saying she needed a vacation and never came back na, buntis pa naman ako and in two weeks manganganak na ko..it’s just me and my son dito sa bahay..worse, may utang pa sya..(talagang dito pa ko naglabas ng sama ng loob, hehe!) Buti na lang, nakakita agad ako ng replacement. It seems to me na no matter how mabait and kind you are, yayas and helpers will just come and go..sooner or later.
Good thing you were able to find a new one that fast. Don’t stress yourself too much okay. Minsan talaga, even if you treat them like family, they still lack compassion to us.
Ayaw yata nilang maging yaya. I hired one before, she’s from Palawan, she wants to be a “tindera” with a much lower salary and with no benefits than to be Gwen’s yaya.