Help

This past week I stayed at my friends' house while they were away. Mom (the one I'm closest to) is in the States to be with her family, and Dad was working out of Beijing for a few days. They have three amazing kids, and Mom took the littlest one with her, which left two boys - ages 6 and 8 - in Singapore with their helper for the week. I happily agreed to hang with them as well. This meant that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I would go straight to their place after work.

They have a helper who lives with them. I would say that most ex-pat families in Singapore have a helper, and I actually only know one that has kids and DOESN'T have one. They're usually Filipina, but some are Thai, Indonesian or other nationalities. This week was my first long experience with a helper. Our Israeli friends here have one, and we have been to their house for dinner, but that's about it for my experience with helpers...

Anyways - it was amazing. I arrived from work, and dinner was MADE and the table was set. There was nothing on my part that was required other than eating. I loved it. After dinner, rather than cleaning up, we went upstairs and watched Star Wars (one day) or played wii (two days). When the kids were asleep, and I came back downstairs, everything was clean, lights were off, and there was nothing to do.

I have stayed with my cousins before, and the hardest part is getting them fed, up in the morning, etc, but Inday did ALL of that. She was amazing. This means that their parents get to hang out with them in the evening. They can entertain guests and move to the living room without worrying about dishes sitting in the sink. I just can't imagine how nice it must be to live your real life this way.

I believe it's about US$600 per month to have a helper here in Singapore.

I also believe that it would be nearly impossible for me. Most won't stay in a proper room - they are more "comfortable" staying in the maid's quarters (ours is TINY! I would NEVER put a person there!). They don't eat with your family. The whole fact that there is someone who is living in your house who is not equal to you is hard for me to digest.

We do talk about it, since we talk about having kids while we're living here, and we wouldn't have any family or most of our friends from childhood (that would drop anything for you...) around. Something for us to ponder.