The clock is ticking away. My live-in helper who has been working for us for over 4 years will be leaving early next week… for GOOD. After 10 years of having 5 maids (excluding 2 temporary maids), the day has finally come where I will have to learn to live without a maid and be the maid myself. 3 school-going kids, 3 blogs, an online store and a household to manage –pray tell I can cope and stay sane! Over the past 1 week, I had given the helper several days off to go to the Indonesia Embassy and to go shopping. She will be having another day off (at her request to go sight-seeing) on Monday next week before she leaves. When she was away, I struggled a wee bit but I think I will survive without her. I had both my palms cut by wires when the pulley clothes hanger snapped, had the kitchen top flooded when I tried to juggle between filling up the kettle with water and putting clothes into the washing machine (thinking it could save time BUT…!) and was feeling a tad giddy having to do housework and online work and having to rush down to pick my 3 girls up from school at different timing. I know I have always been a good multi-tasker but as I get older, the brain just cannot function as efficient. Thankfully the hubs could take-away food for us and I had some frozen food which I had cooked extra earlier, for the girls on those days that the helper was away.
I can still manage light cooking, bathroom washing and moping of the floor on a daily basis. What really turns my mood off is doing the laundry and cleaning up after cooking. Not that we have a big kitchen. You know how squeezy a kitchen in a condo can be. The dirty pots, pans, wok, bowls, plates and cups filling up every space on the kitchen top and sink just make my eyes sore. I think with the helper leaving, I will have more take-away meals and can only afford to whip up some really easy cooking with minimal preparation and washing up. The kids will have to alter their taste buds and get used to eating steamed food on most days. I have been hammering into their heads for the past few months, telling them that they have to prepare for a major change in their lifestyle and not be so reliant on kakak. It’s not easy to go cold-turkey on something since they have all been lucky to have a kakak to help them since birth. I guess the actual situation when the time comes will propel them to change and be more independent. Last night, Alycia asked kakak to teach her how to iron clothes. While Alycia is a pretty good home-maker, the same cannot be said on rascal #2 and #3. Well, they have to learn to be one very soon.
My helper has in the past done and said all kinds of things to boil my blood and caused tempers flying everywhere in the home from everyone. Just last night, she was trying to kill a cockroach that was running everywhere. And guess how she killed the cockroach? She took the burning iron and pressed it on the roach and then continued ironing on rascal #2’s dress – the rascal whom she cannot get along well with! I was even hotter than the burning iron, I tell you and just could not believe her gross action!! Well, having said all these, I think I will definitely miss having the helper around. Despite all that she had done to boil my blood, rupture my blood vessels and at times made me so enraged that I was on the verge on raising my hands to hit her, she has nevertheless been a great help to me.
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