Well after all the spring cleaning I have been doing lately I noticed that a lot was not beening done around the house. Especially when it can to the girls.
I had hired a childminder/nanny for Keira when I went back to work as my housekeeper could not do the house & look after a baby/toddler. Way to much work in my house, the house is huge & teenages seem to make more mess than a toddler.
Anyway she was warned when she started that there would be another baby coming & that her work load would become more but htat she would be paid for all the extra work.(which I did do).
Things came to a head yesterday when I spoke to the house keeper about the issues I had been dealing with & was rather frustrated about.
Initially the child minder was sleeping in as I have to get up really early to leave for work & wanted to have someone available from 6am to look after the girls. She agreed & was doing so up until about Feb when she insisted on going home, I said on but make sure you are here before I leave for work… this did not happen & I had to be late on numerous occasions because of this. The boss was not pleased. She then started to come to work at 5am & buzzing me awake to let her in. I only have to get up at 5:30 & believe me after doing night shift with Steffy I need every second of sleep to stay sane.
The things I brought up were as follows.
1. That the baby’s bottles where not being sterilized correctly even after I had showed her how to do it at least twice. (it’s a microwave sterilizer). She managed to melt the valve of a new drinking cup cus she did not put water into the sterilizer. Steffy had used the cup once.
2. That the girl’s clothes were put in their cupboards inside out.
3. that the toy section was filthy & very unhygienic,I found dirty bottles of milk there, who knows how long they had been there as the milk was sludge already.( I tossed the bottles away)
4. That even after telling that Steffy had to be fed in the feeding chair she insisted on not using it.
5. that if I did not put sheets on Keira bed or the cot they did not have them on
Anyway the house keeper brought these up with her as she did not speak much English so me communicating with her was useless.
At 4pm Vincent called & told me the childminder had quit…… So when I got home the house keeper was frantically trying to find a replacement to start today. She has found a lady who is 37 & I pray like hell her English is better than the last one.
When I got home the house keeper said that she had noticed that Keira was still wearing her night time nappy at 4pm when the childminder left. I was really pissed off about tis, luckily Keira did not have a nappy rash from it.
Please do not think we are wealthy here in South Africa most households have a domestic worker, this is because of our HUGE unemployment issue not to mention that labor is really cheap.
I look after my staff but for some reason some of them just do not stay. I have had my gardener for 7 years & my housekeeper has been with me for 3 years, both her children live with us. Her eldest goes to the school up the road & her 17 month old son is taken care of by the childminder. I always make sure that my staffs kids get birthday presents, chirstmas present, easter eggs, & anything else they might need. I do research for them when they need info for school projects.
I really hope that this new lady is one who will end up staying as I am tired of interviewing ppl. I guess time will tell.
I am taking this new lady on as a temp until i am 100% sure she can do the job to my satisfaction. grrrrr
I will keep you posted.
