One of the discussion points that has been cropping up semi-frequently in the last fortnight is whether we should be getting home helper i.e. a ‘maid’ for the chores. We’re managing that and Hannah fine at the moment, but Ling keeps wondering if we’d be able to have more couple time if we didn’t have to spend half an afternoon every weekend to clean up the house. Home helper assistance BTW isn’t an uncommon thing in Singapore. I haven’t gone into looking at statistics, but just from a casual look around me, I’ll put it ball-park that two thirds of every family with kids I look around me has got helpers at home. The issue of having helper assistance has come up because Hannah is already past two months old, and there’ll come a point soon when we’ll have to decide in what capacity will Ling be returning to work. Should we seek mum and dad’s help at Lentor and in what way? Should Ling be a stay-at-home mum full-time for another half-year? Should Ling go on half-load and we’ll engage a day care center to look after Hannah for the mornings? Or should we just get a permanent home helper and Ling returns to work full-time? To be honest, the temptation of returning to a double-income family is HUGE. Ling doesn’t realize this, but I’m the one who looks through the home finance spreadsheets and can see immediately the long term effects of being single-income versus double-income. So just thinking aloud: what are the options for returning to double-income? Well..
Option 1: We get a permanent home helper.
Option 2: Parents takes care of Hannah all day long.
Option 3: The day care center takes care of Hannah all day long.
The first two options are predicated on engaging home helpers, so that’s one of the topics of the next few posts.
Hello
I left no 1 with infant care and no 2 was under the care of my mum and helper… so i tried all 3 options.
A good infant care is a good option if you can find 1. The child will be in the company of other babies, then monkey see monkey do and they learn real fast. But you need to contend with the possibilities of irresponsible parents who bring their babies to the centre even when their child is ill. This was how Gabriel came down with the dreaded rota virus and was hospitalised and put on a drip.
With a maid, you must clearly state that they need to put baby before householdchores. My girl is a super tv addict at 1 time as my maid just leave her in front of tv to attend to chores.
A good maid is a blessing. When you get one you are not so happy with, its anguish…
Hi Wenyi,
Thanks for sharing :D
After reading abt your boy kena rotavirus, i went to read up more on the vaccination and found out that it only covers 74% of all rotavirus infections. Sigh. But good thing that she should finish all the doses of vaccination by the time we put her into infant care centre – if that is the final decision.
The maid thing is really iffy ya. That’s the reason that’s holding Yang back.