Jet is just past his first month.
It’s been 5 weeks of lessons, of experience, and to say the least, my hats off to all the parents out there in this world. I don’t know whether it’s just us, or whether it’s luck, which I don’t believe in, but it’s just been one series of unfortunate events that we have had to ride through for the past 30 odd days.
1. Confinement Hell
Whoever thought confinement period was the most joyous time of their lives probably lived a good part of their lives in concentration camps. Granted, if you get a good confinement lady, it might be better, but if you get a Nazi like the one we had…oh, joy indeed. The problem with confinement ladies (and I have a real beef with them) is that there’s very little value they have. I am generalising here I know, but I don’t care, because I am so pissed off with the one we were forced to take. Because our first confinement lady, after agreeing to the terms months ago, decided to drop us a note saying she’s not interested anymore, one month before my wife’s due date. Thank you very much. Without any reason, except to simply say, yes I am no longer coming to help you, I am an a**hole. The second lady from Ipoh came recommended and 2 days before our due date, called to say she broke her arm, so sorry! OK. great. She recommended us to this lady at Old Town in PJ and we headed there and found her in a shack, like really extremely filthy shack. Apparently she has a network of confinement ladies.
My recommendation to dads or moms looking for confinement ladies? Don’t even step within a 10 mile radius of Old Town. You will be sorry. “Lan Che”, an old lady, first caused so much problems with my wife, with her absolute retarded way to bring up a child, insisting that mother does not have milk and everytime the child cries (even after walloping 90 ml of milk), he is HUNGRY. When he refuses milk, she insist, he wants WATER. WTF?? After a few days, we figured she was a hoax and gave her the ultimatum to NOT touch our baby in anyway except to bathe…and that too under our supervision. She cooks ok, I will give it, but RM3,800 for that? Jeez. She is also very filthy. I would have to go downstairs every night to clean the kitchen because she leaves it in such a mess, with food on the ground and splattered on the wall. In the 3 weeks she stayed with us, we saw more cockroaches, flies and mosquitoes than we every had in 3 years. Her response when I told her to clean up? “Clean already!”
She had the nerve to request to go off 2 days short of her 28 day because the “other customer” gave birth early. We kicked her out then and there and told her to pack it. She had the nerve to tell us, she has been sacked before and she’s used to it. Idiotic confinement lady from hell.
So don’t ever ever say confinement lady or “pui yuet” in front of me, or else I’ll get myself a paint ball gun and hunt them all down, starting with that network of con women in Old Town.
2. Maid, maid maid.
We made a mistake in depending on a mom and pop agency to get our maid. It’s this guy called James, he operates his business from his home in Section 5 (coincidentally, within the 10 mile radius of Old Town). His home is on the main road after the Old Town roundabout (where you can access old klang road). He’s a nice elderly gentlemen, and we engaged him about 3 months before our kid was due. So began the neverending quest for a Filipino maid. The first one we brought in delayed, and he couldn’t tell us why, after a while, he said it was passport issue. We said, ok, we can wait for that. After the passport was resolved, he said, sorry, she got pregnant. WHAT? We waited so long for this? He said, don’t worry, he can get another one. We interviewed his batch and then after not hearing from him , and already our kid was born: I called him and he said, she was on medical but should get through. A week after, he said, still on medical, and had biopsy. What?? I had to call him and say, “What’s going on??” He said, “Suspected cancer.”
I am sure he means well, but to let your customer wait and call before you update is just plain irresponsible. It is this kind of crap service that Malaysia is so famous for. I really belted him on the phone (I seem to be scolding a lot of old flers of late). I said, after 3 plus months, he has not delivered, it’s simply inexcusable. He should have updated us earlier, instead of me chasing him all the time for an update. We got our money back, and now, 2 months into our newborn, we’re without a maid, thanks to him. Nice guy, crap crap service. Avoid at all cost.
3. Where do we go from here?
Our moms help a little, coming in the afternoon, but the nights, it’s all ours. No maid to help around the cleaning and housework, or to be around with my wife and baby, so I don’t even go out during the night. We’ve actually been adjusting quite well, using the Baby Whisperer book series to guide us through these few weeks. But boy, the stress from the confinement lady and maid issues were really something.
10 mile radius from any baby service around Old Town. You’ll be safe.