To Hire Or Not: The Indonesian Maid, Two to Three Maids in Almost Eight Years, Tips, Advice, Insight

I read a facebook comment relating to maid issues and was immediately inspired to write this post.

Some of my friends mentioned they have had nine maids in the past nine years and another, had 3 maids in the past four years. 

For most working couples, having a live in maid is almost a neccessity. 

The truth is, I hate household chores. I hate ironing, I hate washing the dishes, I hate sweeping the floor, I hate cleaning the toilet, I hate doing the laundry...yes, you get the picture. So when we came back to Malaysia for good some nine years ago, the first I did was sign up for one of those luxuries we Malaysians take for granted known as the "Indonesian Maid".

Not really. That preceding paragraph is meant to be cynical, in case anyone missed that. 

My two eldest children were born while we were still working and pursuing our postgraduate studies in Ireland. We were lucky enough (from a certain perspective) to have a family member come all the way from Malaysia to help look after the kids when we were at work. Since she was my late sister-in law, we did not need to worry about synchronizing our on-calls like some of my friends had to as muslims of opposite gender are not allowed to stay under the same roof for the night unless married or related.

When we came back, my late SIL continued to look after the kids, but after some time decided she wanted to return to her hometown, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as she fell ill a few years later and passed away. It was during this time that we were left with no other choice but to hire our first Indonesian Maid. 

Up to that point, the only experience I had was as a child, my late dad worked and my mum took care of us. She cooked, cleaned, sent us to and fro from school, but we had a few helpers come in from time to time to mop the floor, iron the clothes, and help clean the house. We never had a live in maid. 

My other SIL, was the other person we knew who had an actual live in maid, apart from a few other friends. They did encourage us to hire one.

When we first came back, I took time off from work to settle in. We moved to a town which was away from both families, and the kids were still small. I got bored and decided to get a job. So we had to hire someone when my late SIL left. 

My sister who recently got married was pregnant and already had a maid. Her MIL had many years of experience employing maids and so we got the number of the agent and requested one. The office was somewhere in Puchong. They were quite efficient as I remember. We received an email with a few different profiles, pictures included with brief description of each candidate. 

I did not know this back then, so I selected one which I first felt inclined towards. Just one of those hunches that is hard to describe. She 

TBC