I would like to share my experience of hiring private confinement nanny from Malaysia. I hope this post can serve as a warning/create more awareness for parents-to-be who are considering a confinement nanny.
Long post ahead.
I will start my story from my first born, we placed a booking to hire nanny A. Unexpectedly, my child came out almost 3weeks earlier than her EDD (expected date of delivery). Nanny A says that she is still working for another case in USA, and will not be able to make it back to Singapore on time. Therefore, she introduces to us nanny B. When nanny B arrived, she immediately told us that she can only work for about 2weeks, because she has already been “booked” by another case and have to leave to work for them when their baby comes. At that point, I thought that she was quite responsible as she had placed the customer that booked her in advance as priority, and not me, as I was her “ad hoc” case. Anyway, when she left, there was nanny C and D who came to help for the rest of the confinement. This was because Nanny A claims that she was sick after she returned from USA. We were told that we have to give “ang bao” (red packet) when the nanny comes and leaves. And the most unreasonable part is that since we have 3nannies involved, their pay was calculated in number of days. I.E total confinement 28days = $2800, nanny B worked from day 1 to day 14 = $1400, nanny C worked from day 14 to day 16 = $300, and nanny C worked from day 16 to day 28 = $1300, Total=$3000. As you can see, those days that they replace with someone, I have to pay both for full days when they actually worked half a day. On a side note, I sacked nanny C because I feel that she does know how to take care of baby and almost dropped my baby once. Therefore I changed to nanny D. Nanny B had also complained that nanny A still charged them a referral fee (on top of my deposit which I nv got back), which according to them is a “usual practice”.
Here comes my actually rant. The real person that pissed me off is Nanny B - she stood us up 3 times
When we gotten the news that we are expecting the second baby (at least 7months in advance), we quickly informed nanny B. We paid $300 deposit. Then close to two months before my wife’s EDD (late feb), she informed my wife that she cannot give birth early this time, because the case before us is due early feb and is likely to be late deliver. What kind of stupid excuse is this? What is the point of us paying the deposit to “book” you?
First stood up
My wife gave birth 5days before her EDD, on 20 Feb. We contacted Nanny B, she said her case will end on 3rd Mar and she will contact nanny D to help us with the first 2 weeks of confinement (till 6 Mar). We agreed.
Second stood up
On 5th Mar, she contacted us to inform she could not come on 6th Mar as she got family matter to attend to. She promised she will come on 7th Mar .
Third stood up
On 7th Mar morning, she contacted us to tell us she can’t come as she has severe headache. She again promised to come the next day and offered to work an extra day for us without charges.
So with my first born, it is correct for her to follow up with the case that she was originally hired for and leave on time, BUT amazingly the logic flipped and became a first come first serve basis, regardless of whether there was a prior agreement?
We have reached our limit of being bullied by this nonsense. Might as well come after my wife finish her confinement. We told her that enough is enough, you don’t need to come anymore. She sounded apologetic at first, we attempted to get back our deposit of $300 since she did not come at all. She said that it is impossible to give me back $300, maybe $150 is possible. I gave her my acct number, the last I heard from her is “I have no money now, I will pay you back when I get a new job”. (Btw she just finish her “late case” in late feb, so its double charge for Chinese New year Period – So I smell bullshit from her mouth again.
I am greatly thankful for my mother Wendy Lee and mother in law whom sacrifice their time and sleep during this difficult period, and my own brother Lee Kow Yong because of this nonsense had to make special arrangement to his work in order for my mum to help me (my mum was taking care of my nephews).
My own assumption from what I had observe from their work ethics:
1) They intentionally take in more cases that they can handle in a year so that they can eat the deposit (4cases in 3months) – so that if some drop or clash, they still will be able to get some cash in return
2) They will say that they are sick when the time is near, to get the deposit (if you choose to sack them) or they will earn double for the day of exchange/replacement
3) They will give a lot of excuses when its nearing your EDD, once they made a referral, they will earn the referral fee, exactly the case for both of my children, they will not come back to you as they will “eat” the money from the other two nannies that has done the actual work. If they keep doing this, they do not need to work at all, just need to keep referring.
Nanny B is called xiao lan. Her contact number is +60 11-5151 9800. Strongly discourage you to hire her.
