Dear All,
Just wanna share our horrible experiences (or izzit pure bad luck) with 3 different confinement aunties.....
Confinement Auntie #1
芬 姐 (Fen-jie) from Taman Ehsan, Kepong
Full Name: Low Poo Fan
Hong Leong Bank Acct #: 347-5-06283-7
HP: 012-3282953
Price: RM4300 + RM200 (Hong Pao)
This confinement auntie was recommended by another confinement auntie. My wife was due for delivery in end-Sept, hence we booked her services in June and have paid her RM500 deposit to her bank account. Just one month before delivery (in Aug), we received a phone call from Fen-Jie, asking us to confirm the baby's actual due date.
We told her, it would be end-Sept, cannot confirm actual date, even the doctors cannot guarantee a fixed date since its going to be natural birth. Fen-Jie told us that she wants to go on a holiday to China with her friends in Sept, and she is worried that she may not come back in time to do the job. We told her that it is so last minute, it would be hard for us to find another confinement auntie and since she has already took our deposit and gave her commitment, she should not go for holidays. shakehead.gif
3 days later, Fen-Jie's husband called up and told us that she really needs to go for the holidays to China, since its a family trip. He even told us that in case our baby is born earlier, just ask someone to look after first, and when she comes back, she can continue to do the confinement job. WTF, we told him this is so unprofessional and definitely not acceptable! mad.gif
Another 2 days later, Fen-Jie's daughter called up and ask us the same stupid question, "What is the actual delivery date of your baby?" rclxub.gif
Later in the conversation, she started to turn nasty and said that if we cannot provide her with a fixed date, it is not her responsibility to confirm if her mother (Fen-Jie) can do the confinement job at end-Sept... and blah.. blah.. blah.. Basically, at the end of the conversation, she said her mother really needs to go to China and basically its our problem to find our own replacement.. cry.gif
With barely a month to the delivery and so last minute, it would really hard to good confinement lady outside, we decided to try finding one from a proper confinement centre. After looking at a few establishments, we decided to go to Peiling / Daveleen (www.moms2b.com/). Another big mistake! ohmy.gif
Price: RM 4600 for 28 days work (will get RM 300 rebate if we purchase RM600 worth of "useless" Peiling products
Confinement Auntie #2
Full Name: Chow Kwai Kuen from Ipoh
HP: 016-5667093
Day 1, we picked Auntie #2 from Peiling/Daveleen centre from SS2. On the first day, she started complaining that she is tired and overworked, as she has took on other confinement jobs 3 months in a row. She even complaint that she is only paid RM3000 from Peiling/Daveleen. Usually she will take jobs from outside which pays her much higher. (* I guess she has no outside job that why she went back to Peiling/Daveleen).
Basically, her services for the 1st 2 days was only mediocre. Other than looking after the baby, she only needs to cook 2 meals per day for 2 person. My wife cant take chinese herbs, so she didnt need to boil any herbal soups etc.. Most of the time, she will be looking at the TV, even during feeding day. Day 3 onward, she started to be really lazy and sloppy. The kitchen wares were not cleaned after cooking, and often left overnight till next morning. Baby clothing were only washed once a day, by then its hard to remove the milk stains. Milks bottles were not sterilized, only clean when all 6 bottles were used up.
Hygiene was so bad, we had to tell her several times, that after doing cooking or household chores, she needs to wash her hands thoroughly before touching the baby. She always complaint that she is tired, but she will be watching TV from morning to night. Day 6, we discovered that in the morning that there are plenty of shit in the baby diaper. She didnt even clean the baby bums properly and she gave the excuse that its dark at night and cannot really see the shit. All this while, we have to tolerate her "shit" just for the baby's sake mad.gif
On Day 7, she told us that she cannot work anymore and wants to go back to Ipoh (*We suspected that she may have found another outside confinement job).. and she wants us to tell the centre (Peiling/Daveleen) that it was not her idea not to work, but we wanted a change. WTH, we called up the centre and complained that the auntie doesnt want to work anymore. Either refund us the money or provide another confinement auntie immediately. Peiling/Daveleen told us it would take 1 day to find replacement. Hence we have lost 1 day, since the centre is not going to compensate for loss time.
Confinement Auntie #3
Full Name: Mdm Liew / Lieu
HP: 016-4513878
This auntie is equally lazy as the previous one. First day come, told us that she has been working as a house-keeper for some rich man, no need to work, always got servants or maid assigned to her. To the extent, she said the Centre only told her that her job is to look after the baby and there is no mention that she needs to cook for the baby's parents or do any house works. It is only when we threatened to call the Centre to seek clarification on her work scope that she reluctantly agreed that she will cook and do some basic house chores out of goodwill! WTF!! icon_question.gif
As mentioned earlier, this auntie is equally lazy, she doesnt watch TV often, but talking on the handphone most of the time. For the 3 weeks period, she only visit the market twice, only cooks 2 dishes per meal (1 meat + 1 veggie), lunch and dinner. Keep telling us, young people should not to eat so much. For breakfast, keep telling us to eat bread.. and said its more healthy!
Basically, her services became more and more sloppy towards the end. Kitchen wares and Milk bottles were not washed properly. Our baby is colic and almost every hour whenever the baby cries, she wants to feed the baby! We had to stop her and demanded that she sticked to the feeding schedule to once every 2-3 hours.
She is just plain lazy and always trying to find short cuts. My wife caught her a few times when she left baby unattended in the living room and she went to sleep in her bedroom. Hygiene also became from bad to worse, didnt clean baby bums thoroughly after diaper change. First few days, she prepare a warm pail and would use cotton with warm water to clean baby's bums. After that, she only casually use wipes only and didnt apply nappy ointment after every diaper change. Once again, we have to tolerate her "nonsense" just for the baby's sake mad.gif
On the last night of her service, my wife and I were both awaken by the baby's crying. My poor baby must be crying for a long time, his eyes were all red and voice already coarse... and to our horror, the auntie was sleeping like a log. We literally had to wake up her up and told her baby was crying! doh.gif
After such horrible experiences with confinement aunties, we have concluded that hiring the right confinement aunties really takes luck, either hit or miss! If you have decided to hire a confinement ladies, here are some basic tips based on our experiences:
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Tip #1 - Hiring a CL from outside (i.e. freelancer)
- Most of these freelancers do not have proper training or experiences. A vast majority of them are baby-sitters or domestic helpers who are generally paid around RM1k-2k per month.
- Attracted and lured by the temptation of current market rate of RM4k+ for CL, they will try their luck and claim to be baby expert or gurus! After discovering that these CL are newbies and even if you kicked them out after 1 week, these aunties would have already pocketed at least 1k, as well as free food, drinks, tonic and lodging etc..
- If you are seriously thinking of hiring a CL from outside, make sure you seek references from the right sources, i.e. credible word-of-mouths from 1st hand experiences from someone you know and can trusted. Do not trust the recommendations from another CL!
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Tip #2 - Hiring a CL from Confinement Centres (i.e. Peiling/Daveleen/others)
- If you are thinking of hiring a CL from these Centres, think again!! These CL are no better than those freelancer CL.
- Most of these Centres charged RM4k++ and they only pay their CL about RM3k, which means the Centre pocketed about 1k+ as commission.
- These Centre CL are basically left-overs, and since they cant get any confinement jobs on their own outside (which paid about 4k++), they will have to seek job from these Centres which pay them only about 3k++.
- If you are thinking that hiring a CL from these centres are more reliable and if anything goes wrong, you can complain to the Centre! Wrong! Think again! These Centres do not really care about your complaints, and they know its mostly a one-time deal only.
- If you wanna change CL halfway, the Centre will just arrange another replacement which may take 1-2 days depending on availability. You will have to absorb the loss time, the Centre will not compensate you additional days.
- If the 2nd CL is another hopeless screw-up, then its just too bad. You just have to take the shit for the sake of your baby!
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Tip #3 - Going to stay in at Confinement Centre
- Staying in at these Confinement Centre is costly. Market rate ranges from RM7000+ to 10,000k depending on package.
- Try to personally visit these Centres and be sure to to seek references from the right sources, i.e. credible word-of-mouths from 1st hand experiences from someone you know and can trusted.
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Tip #4 - Buying useless confinement stuff from Confinement Centre
- If you are engaging any services from Confinement Centre, you can be 100% sure that the sales person will try to persuade you to buy a tonne of useless stuff ranging from rice wine, sesame oil, women's tonic, baby oil, pillows etc!
- As first-time parents, we were quite inexperienced and overbought a tonne of useless stuff based on so-called professional recommendations. Most of these items are really overpriced and you can easily get similar products at your local pharmacy or medicinal shop.
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Hope the above tips helps! Good luck!
