Hi,
I had bad experience with current maid who is only with me for less than 2 months.
1) She went with me to Shichida for a couple of times (not more than 4 times), and I thot it's inevitable that she will have fellow maids to talk to, so I didn't enforce that she cannot talk to people. (But anyway, don't think they will follow such instructions) One maid she talked to told her about all the bad employers (and this maid will be transferred for the third time in 4 months??!!!) and she told my maid to be careful of employers. Even though the maid was good to her employers, the employers will change their attitude after 2 months.
2) Then one other time at Shichida, another maid had her arranged to go to the toilet together, the maid will pass her $$ and my maid is suppose to go 7-11 to buy phonecard for her. I was shocked after she told me.
3) I allowed maid to switch on phone only at night and she has to ask me for permission. One weekend afternoon, while we were out, I saw her SMS-ing and while we were driving, the phone rang suddenly and she talked freely on her phone for like 5 mins. And we seem to be like her chauffeurs, while my boys sat with her. The car braked and stuff but she just held on for her dear life.
4) She will also bring a pen and paper down when we bring her to the park with our children. She will jot down those maid's phone numbers whenever she talk to them.
5) Once, we went grocery shopping. She said she had something to buy (with her own $). I didn't want her to follow me like a shadow too, so I was happy to let her shop by herself and meet at the cashier's. Within seconds, I saw her talking to a fellow Filipino (a hunky guy) and the next minute, they were exchanging phone numbers. She even told me that the guy invited her to his house!!!
6) She also caught a glimpse of my 2 younger brothers (who are in their 20s) and told me that they are handsome. And asked me details about my brothers. The next thing she told me was that her cousins (2 of them) came to work as maids, but then married to a Chinese Singaporean, and another to a Chinese Malaysian. I was like
7) Last night, she asked me how come I don't give her allowance (on top of salary) and she hinted to me that she has to get her family to even send her shampoo. Err... not that we never buy her anything, but bec she wants only specific brands of shampoo and body wash. Even her sanitary, she will buy branded. So, we said use your own $ to buy, since she didn't want what we had prepared for her.
Actually, our intention for bringing her out with us was more like to give her some space, some fresh air rather than stay at home all days (since she has no off days). It wasn't so much about taking care of the children as we take care of them very well, without her help. But such bringing her out, actually gave her chance to even interact with maids to such an extent that it made us feel uncomfortable.
The maid will be sent away in like another 3 weeks' time, while I make other arrangements for childcare. I intend to let her go immediately after I reveal the news to her. We are still pondering over the options of whether to buy a ticket and send her home or to send back agent as a transfer maid.
No more maids for us! In the first place, maids did not even value-add into our daily lives.