Yesterday I talked about the positive aspects of having a maid. I wish that this post wasn’t the longer of the two, but I think it’s important to highlight the struggles and challenges of adding another adult to your home.
The Bad/Difficult Aspects
Culture Shock
We are B’s third family. She worked for a Muslim family in Bahrain, and a Chinese Singaporean family here in Singapore before us. B is Filipina. None of those experiences prepared her for the experience of working for an American family. We do everything from washing our clothes and apartment to cooking to raising our child in a radically different way from anything she’s previously experienced. Things that seem obvious or intuitive to us are not necessarily so for her.
There has been tremendous (still ongoing) efforts on both sides to bridge this gap. When we first hired her, B was terrified of every scratch, bump or bruise Elanor picked up while in her care…even if I was right there when it happened. In previous families, this would have a reason to B to be reprimanded for not watching the child/ren closely enough. I shrugged and told her I knew my kid was active and was going to get scrapes. B tried to feed Elanor. Elanor grabbed the spoon out of her hand or ignored her completely and just ate her food with her own (Elanor’s) hands. I insisted on pushing the stroller, and B wondered if it was because I didn’t think she was trustworthy. B has quietly accepted or laughed when Elanor has hit her, and we only have had recent success in teaching B our 1, 2, 3–time out method of discipline.
As the employer, there was guilt that B’s room is very small, and un-airconditioned. I tried to offer her the use of our guest bathroom, which was much larger and nicer than hers so that she would be more comfortable…not realizing that for her, using “our” bathroom made her uncomfortable and crossed lines she didn’t want to cross.
These cultural pitfalls are going to occur. They come up at the most awkward moments and it is sometimes difficult or frustrating as the employer to be the one who has to decide how they are going to be navigated.
Communication
To become a maid in Singapore, the women must pass an English test. What is unclear to me is how rigorous the test is. B speaks English fairly well, but with about the same grammar issues I still struggle with when I’m trying to speak in French (verb tense, awkward turns of phrase, not having the same word that I use for things). It’s important to realize that American English is not (a) what they learned (apart from television) and (b) not what is more commonly used here in Singapore. Generally speaking, Filipina maids are generally considered to have the highest level of proficiency as it’s a language spoken in the Philippines alongside Tagalog and is taught in their schools, which is why they are generally the highest paid maids in Singapore (or so says the materials I’ve read on that topic).
Patience is key, as is stressing that you are okay with them asking you what something means or for further clarification. So is adjusting your expectations…B uses terms that work for her (such as “table napkins” for paper towels) and I’ve often adopted them if I don’t have an issue with them.
Being the responsible party
Although B is 28, and the mother of an 8 year old girl herself…she is not necessarily what I might term “worldly.” There have been many occasions where she has looked to me to explain something to her that has been awkward (tampons, “massage parlors” in Thailand, etc). She looks to me to define the boundaries for her as well as Elanor…it took us more than six months to convince her that we were okay with her doing whatever she wanted on her days off and that we didn’t expect her home at a specific time as long as she was in good shape to get up and take care of E in the morning.
Being the “Manager”
The most awkward thing I’ve had to deal with is the occasions when I have had to tell B that I was unhappy with her work. With my background, I had no understanding of how to do this, and I haven’t always done a great job of it. The most difficult example of this was that she did not want to discipline Elanor…who at 2 can be a tyrant, and I began to notice that when Elanor was with B, she did things and acted in ways she would never dare to do in front of me (slapping B, throwing toys, refusing to clean up). It took my saying that it was one of the few issues important enough that if B really felt she was unable to discipline Elanor that we would have to terminate her. I have never felt as terrible as I did after that conversation and I was terrified that she might decide (even against all logic…she’s complained about how terribly some children treat their nannies here) to leave rather than to learn to give time outs. We spent a week with my modeling the behaviors I wanted her to emulate…how to use her voice to make it clear that 1 and 2 were warnings, to ignore the tantrum once the time out was instituted, how to express to Elanor what she had done wrong, and how to move on from the time out back to normal play.
The Cost
Labor is ridiculously cheap in Singapore. That doesn’t, however, make it free. There are initial costs, an employment tax, twice annual physicals and the maid’s monthly salary and food allowances that all need to come out of your pocket. For us, though, the cost of employing B is just a bit more than what we paid to have someone come into our home once a week in the US, so we consider it a pretty awesome tradeoff.
The Ugly
Racism/Classism
Maids are often very mistreated here and looked down on by some Singaporeans. There was a recent article on Asia one that talked about how 18 out of 20 condos polled didn’t want maids using the building’s pool, and companion piece that cited a condo that didn’t allow maids to use the regular elevators when not accompanying their families, instead requiring them to use the maintenance lift. I was shocked to read these stories, but it was the comments in the forum that really sent my blood pressure into orbit, among them…
Of course not!
Imagine if I am the owner who pays so high price for the condo and the facilities, and the maid actually enjoys it “on my behalf”. How can? I rather not allow my children to swim without me accompanying them.
And, if the condo is crowded with all the maids, the price will sure drop! Who will enjoy the stay there?
and
Have to agree maids, dogs and all kind of animals (domesticated or otherwise) not to be allowed into condo pool. One guy even brought a dog for a swim. I even see notices at high density condo facilities are for residents only probably due to over utilisation by outsiders brought in by residents. Anyway, it is the management to control.
Obviously, not all Singaporeans feel this way. There are comments on the thread from locals defending their helpers. A friend of mine, Kirsten, who is also Singaporean has made a point of blogging about her disgust over this.
However, this is not just an isolated experience.
- A friend’s helper, M, was verbally abused at Paragon Shopping Mall’s playground when she put out a hand to prevent another child from kicking the child in her care’s face, instead allowing the blow to land on her arm….by the kicker’s mother.
- B was verbally abused by a taxi uncle.
- When we came back from the US, the building manager made a point of calling me and tattling on what he perceived as “bad behavior” on B’s part…having a female friend over for a movie (something we’d actively encouraged her to do). Security said her friends needed to sign in when they came over…and I called them on it as no friend of mine has ever been asked to do the same…the difference of course being that my friends are expats, white, or local.
It is common to run into? No–in our case, two isolated incidents in a year. But from all the stories I hear…you should be prepared to stand up for your helper at some point.
The Helper’s Lack of Rights
As an American, I think I’m particularly bothered by the lack of rights maids have here that anyone who isn’t a foreign domestic worker does enjoy, and I’m particularly bothered by the lack of reproductive freedom.
Primarily they have little to no access to birth control and none to abortion, while the rest of us have access to both. Make whatever argument you like, but I’m hardly going to fault another woman for seeking emotional (or financial…some maids make only 300 SGD a month including which also includes their food allowance…and all of them are sending as much money as they can home to support their families) comfort in a foreign country where she is alone. The Philippines are a Catholic country, and I’ve learned that few, if any maids are informed about contraception in any form. There is a cultural stigma surrounding condom use–a perception that if someone asks you to use a condom that you are dirty. The maids are not the people who hold the power in the relationships they are in, and if their male partner has no interest in protection, they don’t have many choices.
Maids undergo a blood test looking for pregnancy and STD’s every 6 months (most maids I’ve spoken with about this only know that they’re looking for pregnancy). If anything turns up, the maid is deported. There are no consequences for her partner. At all.
Basically, if any consequences result from sex, even if the partner is local…it is the maids problem. B saw a friend sent home just a few weeks ago. Her friend was pregnant, and was going to have to return to a country where abortion is illegal and a husband will likely beat her for becoming pregnant with another man’s child. I wonder what that poor woman’s life is like as I write this.
You may argue that they shouldn’t be having sex. I say that they are living their lives in Singapore. Legally, the employer is only required to send them home for 2 weeks every other year. To think that they have less emotional needs or are entitled to less comfort when not on the job is to think of them as less human or just less valuable than yourself.
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Personally, I argue that the trade-offs are worth it, if it fits into your family’s budget and lifestyle. As I said yesterday, we were incredibly lucky when B joined our family.
I hope that she chooses to stay with us for our duration here, as she has also become my friend.
The important thing that I’ve learned is to never stop talking to your helper about how things are going, to never let your helper become the primary care giver if you are a stay at home mom, and to keep checking in with yourself. You’re going to screw up…I’ve done things that, looking back, I could have handled better. Remind both of you on a regular basis that you are a work in progress too. Try to put yourself in her shoes.
Best of luck!
