Our domestic helper Siti has been on home leave for the past 2 weeks. We timed it such that she left on the same day we headed for Taiwan so that we could minimise the downtime we were to face without a helper. Even with that precaution, it has been pretty challenging since we got back to Singapore.
In normal circumstances, I feel we would have managed quite well without Siti for a couple of weeks. However, her home leave coincided with Irene and I both falling sick plus a busy period at work for both of us. I was focused on launching a new programme at work. Irene has been working hard on a new client app. This meant that we were both exhausted each day and at the same time could not work from home every day even if we had wanted to. So instead of having great family bonding time with Zoey while Siti was away, we had to struggle with childcare arrangements and trade various roles during this time.
It also meant that certain things were overlooked during the past couple of weeks. For starters, Zoey’s playroom now looks like a hurricane has hit it. My attempts to get her to tidy up have failed miserably. She is constantly distracted while packing. She will pick up a book and instead of packing it away, start reading it.
I had expected to be able to cook some meals while Siti was away. I only managed to cook 1 meal that consisted of throwing some spare ribs and carrots into a pot and calling it a soup. Irene then somehow managed to burn said soup while reheating it for lunch the next day. She did attempt to clean the burnt pot. The results below.
On top of all this, Zoey misplaced a sippy cup filled with milk. Our conversation on the day it went missing as follows:
Me: Zoey, where is the cup of milk I gave you?
Zoey: I dunno *shrugs her shoulders*
Me: Zoey, you have to find it or else it will become smelly milk.
Zoey: Ok
1 hour later…
Zoey: Mama, I want milk
Me: Where is your cup of milk?
Zoey: I dunno *shrugs her shoulders*
Me: Zoey, you have to find it. I won’t give you more milk until you find it.
Zoey: Ok *makes feeble attempt to find it and eventually gets distracted by some book or toy*
REPEAT every couple of hours for the entire day.
The cup of milk was eventually found by Zoey. It was behind some toys on her toy shelf. She excitedly exclaimed that she had found it and even posed for a picture with the now solidified cup of milk.
The cup and its contents have been thrown away.
It has been a hectic couple of weeks.
Through it all, I am really grateful. Despite the fact that it has been tiring and stressful, I feel it has helped Irene and myself work better as a team. We managed to coordinate our schedules so that each of us were able to spend some quality time with Zoey. It also allowed me to take a closer look at Zoey’s daily life.With my busy work schedule over the past few months, I’ve been neglecting the little details. For example, I discovered that Zoey has been drinking too much milk. By my calculations, she is drinking between 600 to 800 mls of milk daily. That is too much and needs to be cut down. It also explains why she has been eating a lot less during meal times.
Siti returns tonight. I hope she had a good break and visit home with her family. We missed her while she was away and I will be glad to have her back. At the very least, our home will be somewhat clean again and there are mountains of laundry that needs to be either washed, ironed or put away. Next time I shall try to plan our own vacation while she is away!