in need of help

its the time again, summer time, wherein helpers/yaya goes for a vacation. this time around, my helper/yaya of 2 years wont be going back anymore. she said that she will try to apply as domestic helper in singapore. my reliever helper said that my current yaya has found another employer who would give her a higher pay. oh well. now im beginning to wonder if we actually are stingy :( hope not. considering we just have a small house, we are not that strict, few workload and i'm home most of the time.

anyway, we are again in search of a dependable and trustworthy helper. according to my friend cimeon, its not hard to find a helper, but actually the credible ones. hay! for the meantime, its me alone handling the chores, errands, and of course, my family. tiring yes. but i keep on thinking that this is an opportunity for me and the kids to bond. so everyday, i come up with ideas on what to do with them. i actually haven't started  doing any new activities yet. still have to manage my time. but for starters, we read more books. i let them paint. i let them play with their new tea set toy and let them "make my tea and bring me cake" while i do other chores. i also bring them to the laundry shop with me. yup, including my 2 year old. they have fun riding the public transport. its actually an adventure for them. i am actually glad they get to enjoy these things. you know, makes us all humble and enjoy simple things in life. makes them face reality that not all the time we have a car. makes them street smart too. it also one way of teaching them about taking care of the business ;) lot to learn when you're out there.

can't say that it's not tiring and stressful especially when the girls fight. it is! but i can't complain. i am blessed to have this time with them. we are blessed in so many ways.

helper issues

this morning, i finally had the courage to face our helper of almost 1 year. i don't know why it took me so long to do so. perhaps i'm just not confrontational as what others think or maybe i fear for our safety especially for my kids.

like others, she was ok at first. she was even worried because she wasn't doing anything much at home. well, our apartment is just small and we don't have lots of stuff to begin with. i do the cooking for all meals cos she doesn't know how to cook. clothes and bedsheets are mashine washed. she does the ironing only once a week. cleaning could be done in a few minutes since we don't have much stuff. we don't even have a sala! so i can say that work for her should be easy. and guess what? her day off starts saturday afternoon and goes home monday morning.

the problem started when i noticed that some of my money was missing. started with just the coins then some Php20, Php50 and then the piggy bank. this prompted us to purchase a cash box with lock. it didn't stop there. she even gets money from my wallet which is inside my bag that's inside my room. if there's big amount missing, i'll ask her to look for it cos "it must have fallen from my bag" and then she'd "find" it.

for the past weeks, i noticed that she's masungit, mabigat ang paa, nagbubuntung-hininga, she's not responding when we call her, etc. i know she's not tired. mind you, i do most of the work at home. i seldom go out. i go out when i bring raya to school. that's it. last night was the last straw. she went out to go to the store [i think] without saying anything to me nor to my mom who was there. she just passed by us. when she got back, i asked her if there's a problem. she didn't answer.

so this morning i again asked her if something's wrong. she didn't answer. so i let her sit and talked to her. good thing gelio was there too with me to talk to her. i didn't expect her to deny everything even if we cited some incidents! i was thinking she will just keep quiet. but no! hay....  

anyway, she said she'll buy ticket. sana nga umalis na sya. i want her to pack in front of me. my wedding band is still missing. we talked to our family and the guard in our village already.

are we so lenient? maybe we have to go through this to learn the expensive way.  :(  an officemate of my husband advised me to set the rules right from the start. i'll do that. i've listed [in my mind] the rules for the next helper/yaya. i'll be strict this time. if i see something's wrong from the start, i'll have to confront her. i should NOT be scared that i'll lose a helper or that she might hurt my daughters. the more i should act on it to prevent anything bad happening to my family. anyway, i AM the boss!