Decisions, decisions....

Aku di dalam dilemma sekarang.

I have no maid. Babah and I, we have to do the housework ourselves but we are fine with it. Our routine is a bit chaotic, what with work and housework and children to juggle, but the floors are still swept (let’s not talk about mopping, yeah ?), the clothes are washed, folded and pressed and I still manage to cook dinner and my children breakfasted on hot home cooked meals.

It is far from perfect, obviously. The windows needed cleaning, the mirrors in all the bathrooms needed to be sprayed and wiped, the shelves could use a few dusting action… (the cat crap to be buried) the list goes on and on.

But we are okay. We borrowed my mom’s maid for a month before Ramadhan and we found that we didn’t like it. We somehow felt uneasy with a stranger living in the house and I especially felt a bit rimas when she hovered behind me when I cooked.

Without a maid, the whole family is up on their butts. The children know how to sort out the laundry (he he), switch off the bathroom light and water heater, susun kasut whenever they enter the house… basically they understand responsibilities (who wouldn’t if Mummy keeps on reminding them that she has no helper 24/7). They do chores without complaining and at this moment are quite adept at housework.

Adik will collect her shoes and her brother’s before leaving for school and put them in their everyday bag. Abang knows how to get the laundry from the washing line. In fact 2 days ago I was cooking and had left the fridge door open. When the fridge made the tit-tit noise to inform us that the door is ajar, Abang went to close it. When he saw I left some stuffs at the edge of the fridge door, he put them back on the shelves and closed the door. I was proud because he didn’t ignore them.

I know if we have a maid, my children would be lazy. Worse they would stop caring.

But without a maid, I come home to a musty house. The house has a dank sort of smell that is most unpleasant. It is not because I left my house unclean when I left for work but because no fresh air entered when we are away.

The house is hot too because again there is no fresh air. The sad thing is we can’t have the windows open when we get home because usually it will be almost dark when I insert the door’s key and Shah Alam being dengue area… well you know where I am going.

I also pity my babies. Sure they go to their grandma’s house after school but they do not exactly have their own room to go to, is there ? I wonder where they go to unwind and relax after half a day at school, whether they flop themselves on my mom’s bed or in my sister’s room or just crashed on the sofa. I somehow feel that they do a full day like me and their Babah because they are not home.

But having a maid is a trial in itself. Trying to adjust to her presence, wondering if my children are actually safe with her, always thinking all the worst possible things that could happen to them just because they failed to answer the phone.

Basically, can I trust her ?

So is wanting to go home to a fresh smelling house, all nice cool because the windows are open is a reason enough to get a maid ? Are my children really unsettled because they have to go my mom’s house after school instead of coming home ?

-

HMMM………….