Hire Confinement Nanny - LOO SAI MOI a.k.a. 梅姐 at you and your babies' own risks!
To all parents out there and especially new parents, if you are reading this post, you are probably searching for a confinement nanny. I'm going to walk you through my 2 weeks of hell with her and hope that it will help you make the right decision before hiring.
1) Extremely poor hygiene standards
a) Kitchen, cutlery and utensils are always oily after washing
- I ended up having to clean the kitchen, wash the all the cutlery and utensils twice everyday. Note: Even if you are don't have OCD, you probably won't be able to take it unless you enjoy holding oily spoons and eating from plates with grease left overnight. In addition, be prepared to enjoy grease stained cabinet, refrigerator handles and of course all the bottles of your condiments etc. On certain occasions, you may also find bits of raw meat or fish on the handles.
b) Soaking babies clothes with poo with other baby's laundry
- Common sense will tell you that you need to wash the poo away before soaking with the rest. Imagine all the rest of the laundry smelling like poo after drying. In addition, if your water bills are too low currently, she is definitely capable of setting a new record for your household.
2) Using ingredients which are not 100% thawed to prepare meals
- I've highlighted this more than once and she replied by saying it's normal. If you are fine with wasting your efforts to buy the freshest ingredients from the wet market and let her serve you guys shit food or partially cooked food, please engage her services asap.
3) Handling babies without washing her hands after touching raw food
- I've caught her doing this thrice and gave her a stern warning. On the third occasion, she simply rinsed her hand with water and walked away. If you are thinking of boosting your child's immunity, imagine the type of bacteria your child will be exposed to for the next one month or so.
4) Liquid cleanser and other expendable items for your babies
- She basically use as though they are free (Technically, yes). To give you some context, 4 bottles of Pigeon Liquid Cleanser (700ml) depleted within 2 weeks. If you are feeling rich, by all means. Just make sure that you have enough space at home to stock up. By using more cleanser, more effort is needed to make sure that the milk bottles are cleaned properly and with her hygiene standards, I highly doubt so. Thankfully, this cleanser contains 100% food grade ingredients. This also brings you back to Point 1b, more cleanser used means more water is needed to wash. Once again, record breaking water bills.
5) Enjoys preparing milk in the nanny's room with my babies
- For convenience sake, she typically likes to have a tin of milk powder and a 3L flask of warm water in the room. I'm totally fine with that so long as it is easier for her while taking care of the babies but when I start to see ants in the room due to milk powder all over the floor, it is not cool anymore.
6) Insensitive to noise
- Refuse to close room doors and the lids of diaper trash bin gently throughout the day despite multiple reminders. Till date, I'm not too sure why she does that. Perhaps it's to train my child to sleep in an environment where there are sudden loud noises. One of her classic response to me on this matter was: "If you were to bring your babies out, can you tell the whole world to shut up? Babies must learn to live with noise."
7) Bottle feeding
- Every individual has got their own unique style and way of feeding the babies. However, for newborns, it is very important to hold them at the right angle during feeds so that they do not end up choking on milk. There were multiple instances when I saw her putting my babies almost lying flat while feeding and her eyes were closed.
8) Lunch ala carte requests
- As her employer, I believe I'm responsible enough to buy her lunch everyday throughout her stay with my family. I will usually ask if she has any cravings otherwise I will just get her whatever I'm buying for myself. Subsequently, she started to get more demanding and started to request for additional ingredients along with the rice or noodles I'm getting. Honestly, I don't have any issues buying her extra food but with her F grade performance, I seriously don't think she deserves to be treated so well.
Finally, after two solid weeks, I decided to take the leap of faith and asked her to leave with immediate effect. She requested for me to pay her another week's salary as a form of compensation for early terminating her services otherwise she can report this matter to MOM. I've checked and there are no such regulations under MOM's law. Nonetheless, I've paid her the full sum in order for her to shut up and get out of my house in the shortest possible time.
As a new parent, this confinement journey is definitely not a pleasant one and I hope that the same fate do not fall upon you and your family. Your hard earned money can be better spent elsewhere.
