Maids. Arrrrrggggh

That title above is a typical groan for many Singaporean women. And some expats. We need them but we can't stand them. 

Let's start with mine. 

Maid #1: Direct hire from Philippines.  The sister of an auntie's former maid. The auntie's reasoning was that her maid did a stellar job, so her sister must be good too. Being good maids must run in the family, this auntie said. I liked her personality. She is friendly, smiley, soft spoken and a simple country girl. She made friends really fast in my condo (full of white people with other filipina maids.) This maid ended up leaving my daughter alone at the bus stop and not picking her up. She also had no idea how to handle a my newborn at the time.

Maid #2: Already in Singapore. Stupid inexperienced me had no idea something illegal was going to go down. This lady was already in Singapore as the wife of a local Indian security guard. She had not worked for anybody for 7 years prior to me. She was 43 and had rotten teeth. She talked and talked a lot but did such a bad job of cleaning that I told her off. Lost my temper and yelled many times. She also lost her temper and yelled at me. Her husband is jealous and keeps calling her and calling us to check on her and sometimes shows up drunk at our gate. BUT she takes detailed & special care of my two girls just as though they were her own or better. 

Dilemma eh?