Hiring a helper is very common nowadays for families and especially mothers who are working full time to help ease up our workload at home. Being a full time working mother myself, I found that hiring a helper had helped me tremendously and so far I’ve not once, regretted my decision.
So you’re looking to hire a helper who is supposed to help you around the house in every way possible. But how do we spot if your helper is a good choice for you and your baby?
Getting a helper can be a wonderful choice in your life if you’re lucky and get a good candidate. But things are not always as smooth and you might get individuals who are not really keen to work nor are they willing to learn and work hard. I’m sure we have all heard tons of maid stories out there, both good and scary ones!
Here, I’ll share a few points for you to note and consider when hiring a helper.
CRITERIA
What are the criteria you look for in a helper? Hubby and I listed down our requirements before we headed off to maid agencies in search for our helper.
Experience: Do you wish to hire a new maid who’s never worked in Singapore before? This means that you’ll need the time and patience to teach her from scratch when she arrives and slowly pass down your style to her and how things work in the household.
If you do not have the time to teach and need one urgently, it might be a better choice to find one who has had experience working in Singapore before and has prior experience handling infants and children.
My current helper has prior experience taking care of a 3 & 6 year old which is an advantage for me. I just had to teach her how to handle infants properly as taking care of infants is different from handling toddlers.
LANGUAGE
Communication is one of the biggest concerns as you need to make sure both you and the helper are able to understand each other! You definitely don’t wanna end up being ducks and chickens! So make sure you find one who is able to understand Basic English or rather, simple English.
Also, consider who will be interacting more with your helper. Let’s say, if you have an elder who’ll be at home, you’ll need to make sure that they’re able to communicate with each other as some elderly can’t understand English and speak only Mandarin and dialect.
CHARACTER
One of the human basics! Does your helper have the patient and caring characteristics which are very crucial when handling babies and children? Do you have a baby who is tough to handle and requires special attention due his character or medical reasons?
Make sure your candidate is someone who has patience in handling babies and is not rough. Look for traits such as whether she’s attentive, gentle, caring, etc. End of the day, getting a helper who has the potential of becoming violent and abusive like what we see on the awful Facebook shares is the LAST THING we need!
HYGIENE
Other than having the characteristics of being patient and caring, make sure she’s someone who is hardworking and not downright lazy.
Hygiene is the talk here ladies! What if she gets lazy and doesn’t wash the milk bottles, pacifier and toys properly and causes your little one to be sick? With hygiene being one of the most important aspects when handling babies, do take note if she’s washing her hands thoroughly and washing dishes and bottles clean.
Alright! Ultimately, I hope you find a helper who is able to adapt to your living styles and help ease up your workload at home! Good luck! ☺