Babysitter - Part 2

Some people said if you really want to know whether the babysitter is taking good care of your baby, do spot check. I did that too at the beginning but I didn't make it so obvious. The good thing about my situation was that, my office was just a walking distant from Kak K's house. And since I was breastfeeding, during lunch hour I could go to her house. At first I didn't tell her my lunch hour time. But no matter what time I showed up, there was nothing wrong that would make me unhappy about her.

My sister-in-law (Kak N) had bad experience with her first babysitter who was also her neighbour in the opposite house. She wasn't really want to send her baby to her at first, but this neighbour had kept pestering her about how much she would want to babysit Kak N's baby (when she was still pregnant). So she thought why not.

One day, she came back early from work but she hadn't call that neighbour first. When she arrived at the neighbour's house she saw her baby (IN) was on the floor with no clothes on (he was about 4 months or so, baru pandai meniarap). And the neighbour's son was sleeping on the mattress belonged to IN. The neighbour, upon seeing Kak N, was shocked, quickly took IN into her arm and stammered that her son was not well, that was why he was sleeping on IN's mattress (without being asked!).

Kak N upset with what she had just seen, said nothing and took IN home. Then she called her mother to come to babysit IN for several days and later she sent IN to stay with her mother at her hometown. Not to make it so obvious, she told her neighbour that her mother wanted so much to care for IN so Kak N would no longer sending IN to her. In the meantime she went around looking for another babysitter and when she got one that she trusted (based on friends' recommendation) she moved from the housing area that she was currently staying. It was a drastic measure, yes....but she did it for her son. She could no longer believed the neighbour. The second babysitter turns out to be very good that all her five kids were cared by her. She and her family are like part of Kak N's family now.

Oh, I forgot to mention that not long after I've sent my baby to Kak K, I bumped into Kak G at our block entrance and she asked me who had been caring my babies and why didn't I send them to her. I really didn't know what to say, but I said I heard she had many children under her care, that was why I didn't ask her. She was disturbed and said that wasn't true, she always willing to care for my babies if I had asked her to. And she further said that how easier it would be for me if I sent them to her as we live in the same block. I said it was ok, it wasn't so difficult eventhough Kak K lived in several blocks away from mine. After that whenever I bumped into her (which turned out to be quite often, because the time I arrived home after fetching the babies was the time she came out for jogging!) , she would keep saying the same thing, as if she expected me to change my mind. So I tried to avoid bumping into her.

Back to Kak K, she managed quite wonderfully taking care for both twins. She didn't complain anything about them, instead she kept complimenting how good babies they were, didn't cry so much. She also did a lot of things in extra for us, like sewing the missing buttons on their clothes, buying toys and food but she didn't say anything. I found out accidentally. And from time to time she would buy clothes for them.

Anyway, I didn't take advantage on her kindness. I provided all the things needed by the twins and all the baby's stuffs that would make Kak K's job easy. I didn't count how many diapers used by the twins (some people do!!!). I left things like diapers, formula, toilettries, baby's foods at Kak N's, and she just have to tell me when things were out of stock or I would myself ask. I didn't allow her to wash the twins's clothes for I think that was not part of her job. When it was time for the twins to eat solid foods, I cooked myself the porridge eventhough Kak N offered to do it. For me, they are my babies, I should cook their foods although I had to get up so early. Besides if I do it myself, I could ensure the quality of the food.

Some of my colleague compared stories about their babysitters, some of them said they paid less that I did, yet their babysitter would wash their baby's clothes and cook the food. For me I didn't mind paying that much (RM500 for two babies, the Chineses are paying RM500 for one baby, mind you!) and I didn't mind the fact that Kak N didn't wash the clothes or cook the food for I think even with the amount that I was paying her still was not comparable with the works she had to do for my babies. Some people asked me, since I sent two, why wouldn't I asked for discount? Honestly, I don't think RM250 is expensive for babysitting, not because I could afford it but think about the works needed to be done. Ask all mothers: isn't taking care of one baby exhausting? Isn't cleaning up the poops dirty? Yes, it does!!! That, our own child. Imagine taking care other people's baby? Now, since I sent two, did I deserve to get discount? Did Kak K get to do less works with two babies? No.

In fact when the twins reached 1 year old, when I paid her the money, she returned some amount of the money to me, saying that she would accept lesser from that time. I said no, I would be paying the same amount as before (unless if she would want more) because cik HB and I were very satisfied with her service. Most importantly, we had peace in mind at work, knowing that our twins were under good care. She was also never give us any problems, never take day off from babysitting (my other collegues would have problems when school breaks come, because their babysitters would want to go for vacation or balik kampung thingy).

And then when the twins sick, which at the beginning I would take leave to take care them myself, and she had noticed, she insisted whenever they sick, don't hesitate to send them over to her. She told me don't waste my annual leave for the matter.

She was very loving towards the twins. If we were on holidays, like balik kampung for a week or something, and we didn't send them the day we should to her, she would be calling and asked where her two sweethearts.