Today is the last day of our house helper. She's been with us two months before my eldest was born in 2002 but left us after she got pregnant in 2006. After a year she went back to us to take care of my second child. She is the only one who stayed with us for long.
Actually I'm not used to having house helper at home but when I got married and had our first child, I have no choice but to hire one because hubby and I are both working full time.
Our house helper is a distant relative of my husband, she has been staying with them in the province since she was in elementary because my mother-in-law sent her to school. After high school she was enrolled in college but later on she stopped because she wanted to work and that was the time when we needed someone to take care of our daughter while we are working.
At first I don't have any problem with her, she knows a lot of household works and she knows how to take care of children but later on she has some qualities which I don't like and what I really hate is that she lends things to our neighbors without our knowing and accepts visitors while we are at the office ... maybe that explains why she got pregnant even though she didn't take a weekend off that much. I learned about what she's doing when some of our neighbors told me. I never said anything to her then because she was already preparing to go home at that time.
In 2007, I was assigned in Japan then when my husband told me that one of our two house helpers told him that she wanted to go back to the province ... we had already our second child then so we really need to have two house helpers. Hubby also told me that our first house helper texted him and asked if she can work again for us ... leaving us with no more choice, I agreed thinking that we have already transferred to a place where security is tight and visitors can't just come and go and besides my aunt was staying with us at that time so our house helpers can't do what they wanted to do for I have someone staying in the house watching them.
Before I can finish my assignment in Japan, my aunt who was staying with us passed away so again my children were left to the care of our two helpers without someone watching them while my husband is at the office. So far, there were no problems and I was able to finish my assignment in Japan and returned to our local office here in Manila.
After few months, our other house helper left leaving us with our original house helper. We were looking for someone to replace her but we can't find one so I just asked our original house helper if she can cope up with our two children and she said yes ... so I increased her salary and told her to just concentrate on the children, the household chores can be done whenever we're home.
As always, things worked out fine at first but there you go again, after several months, I started receiving texts from my neighbor of what our house helper is doing while we're at the office. Our place becomes her siesta place with other house helpers of other units, she washed clothes for other units using our water and washing machine, selling items such as Avon, Natasha ... you name it, she has it. I reprimanded her of using our water and washing machine to wash clothes for other units ... I have proof when my water bill at the laundry area doubled and she said that she won't do it again.
Since then, the idea of staying at home and living without a household helper already entered my mind and it took me two years to realize it. So today is her last day and in spite of all the headache she gave me, I still have a lot to thank her. Just like everyone else she also have her flaws but what is important is that she have taken care of our children while hubby and I are working.
As a sign of our gratitude to her, we gave her a separation pay. I told her to stay with her daughter at the province and just start a small business there but I think she really want to stay here in the city and I learned that she will be transferring to a new employer just a few blocks away from us. Well, it's her choice and we can't do anything but just wish her the best.
It's really difficult to get a househelper that you can rely on 100%. From my own experience, the more that they stay long in my household, the more that they become abusive and too familiar. That's why i have stopped hiring helpers, good thing my kids are grown-ups now, so I just get somebody to iron our clothes, and we just all do the housecleaning during weekends.
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