Yaya, What’s for Lunch?
From what I remember, we had more or less ten yayas1 since the 90’s. Some were irritating, lazy as hell, and irritating. Oh, have I said that they’re irritating? While others were friendly and they do their work as how they should do it.
The first maid that we’ve got, as far as I can remember was an old woman from Leyte. We had her for more than ten years. She did what she ought to do: clean the house, take care of us, prepare food, etcetera. But as time passed by, she became irritating and very slow. Talking about of “depreciation.” A whole day is not enough for her to finish ironing our clothes or wash them. She fought verbally with my parents when she don’t like whatever she had to do.
I’m not sure of the reason why she left. But from what I’ve heard from my parents, the wife of her son died and she had to take care of his son — who is by the way blind — and her two grandchildren. Now, she’s getting very low pension from SSS.
From the time she left and when we got our present maid, we had several maids. All were irritating!
I’ve listed here some of the things that made me irritated:
- One of them loves to cook at the wrong time so we end up eating cold food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- Another one let strangers inside the house. Won’t that freak you out?
- Most of them clean the house a few minutes before my parents would arrive.
- My clothes always get mixed with those of my siblings. I always end up looking for my clothes.
- One had met the other maids in the neighborhood. They always talk whenever they get the chance.
The present maid that we got — who is on leave for a week — is the most industrious among the maids that we’ve got over the years. According to my mother, she is the best. She does whatever my parents told her. Actually, before she left for Bacolod yesterday, she washed all of our dirty clothes. And to my siblings, she’s not just a maid but also a friend.
But even though we’ve got a maid that do almost everything of the household chores, my mother still insist that we do some chores. Yeah, she’s right. We should. Why? It’s for our own good, when we got older, I’m sure we will also be doing those household chores, like it or not.
And this reminds me that I still haven’t got to clean my room since the start of the summer vacation. I badly need to clean my room!
*****
I’m 50% sure that I’ll attend the iblog3. What I’m thinking now is how I’ll get back home from UP. My friend who goes to UP said to me that I can go back to SM North Edsa, but that means that I’ll have to wait for a bus and that could take for ages. He suggested that I can go to Cubao and look for the bus that’ll go to Bataan there.
- Translation: maids [↩]
April 11, 2007 @ 9:03 am
Isn’t a yaya a babysitter and a maid a katulong?
We’ve had our piece of good and bad maids. I remember when I was grade 5, we had a maid..she was young but very responsible. She easily learns the things my mom and aunt teaches her. Pag gising ko ng umaga, may mainit na ako na tubig pampaligo. Because she was really a good maid, my mom offered to send her to school but for some reason I do not know, bigla siyang pinauwi ng mga magulang niya. The one who replaced her was equally nice and responsible pero umuwi rin agad. =( Both are Ilocanas. Yung is from La Union, yung isa naman taga-Isabela.
Then when we hired maids now these past years, most were very very horrible. Not only do they not perform their jobs well, they’re doing things that you don’t know. Nung dumating yung isang bill namin ng phone, …bakit ang daming tawag sa cellphone. Dito sa bahay nag-aaminan kami…walang umamin, tinanong yung katulong..umamin na rin. OMFG. That katulong I’m referring to does not even know how to wash dishes… susmariosep! Isang araw nainis na talaga ako… inaway ko…verbally. Hehehe. Ilang beses na namin pinagsabihan… ganun pa rin…no can do.
Then in one of my mom’s cousin’s house where my mom’s sister work… ilang beses na nagpapalit ng maid dahil it’s either tamad yung maid o kahit basic house chores, di alam gawin. Kinuwento nga ng tita ko, yung maid, inutusan ng pinsan niya na linisin yung hallway sa bahay. Hindi nilinis so siya(yung pinsan ng mom ko) na ang naglinis tapos yung maid andun, nakikipahchismisan sa ibang maids. Nakakatawa, magmaid sila pero hindi nila alam gumawa ng household chores. Come to think of it most come from lower-income families..siyempre since wala silang maasahan na gagawa ng household chores, expected na alam nila ang mga gawaing bahay. Greabeh talaga yung isang maid namin dati, ni maghuhugas na nga lang ng pinggan, paltos pa? Masmarunong pa maghugas ng pinggan mga pinsan ko na nasa elementary palang.
Sa totoo lang, ang hirap maghanap ng matinong maid ngayon na responsable. Gusto nila may trabaho lang nila at sinusweldohan pero ayaw nilang gawin ng mabuti trabaho nila. =(
April 11, 2007 @ 9:21 am
KT: Yeah, talagang mahirap maghanap ng matinong katulong ngayon. And I just remembered, laging sa first days lang matino ang mga maids. Habang tumatagal, pumapaltos na sila. Eek.
April 11, 2007 @ 9:21 am
I hope you can make it at iBlog3. I believe there are also bloggers coming to the event from nearby areas. Thanks!
April 11, 2007 @ 9:35 am
We also had tons of yayas way back at isa lang ang natandaan kong pangalan. Maribelle ata yun. Siguro mabait sya kase natatandaan ko sya. Yung iba, puro ang ending e nakawan. Haha.
April 11, 2007 @ 11:53 am
I’m sure everyone has had his/her share of bad maids. Hirap kasi sa amin dito sa bahay, we always treat them as family members. Ang nangyayari tuloy, umaabuso. Noemi Dado just made an entry about this — dealing with maids.
Wala kaming kasambahay ngayon. Balewala rin naman kung meron o wala. Kami-kami pa rin naman ang gumagawa ng gawaing-bahay rito. Ang pinakadahilan lang naman kaya kumuha ay dahil sa brother ko.
Yung last na kasambahay namin, umalis. Nabuking kasi mga kalokohan. Tsaka siya ang dahilan kung bakit namatay yung dalawa kong aso. Yep, si Bullet yung isa dun. Tama bang magkalat ng rat poison dito sa bahay eh alam naman niyang madalas nasa sulok si Bullet pag wala ako? Haaay….
April 11, 2007 @ 12:14 pm
Shari is definitely right about maids, we treat them like they’re a part of the family, they take advantage of it and one, like one of your pointers, let strangers into the house. Once a maid lets strangers into the house, and an unknown man for that matter, it’s usually not a good sign already. Have you already experience a male maid? We have. He was pretty good, but he had to get married so he quit the job.
Lol, we’re the same. The present maid we have right now is on a one week vacation to her “kampung” (Indonesian for probinsya), she’s our favorite maid and she’s been with us for 7 years na, so I’m guessing she likes us as her host family too. : ) Sometimes she even nags me for not cleaning my room. Haha.
April 11, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Put yourself one moment in the shoes of a yaya… you get a meagre salary and you are expected to do ALL the household chores… no limit in time… in fact you are a “modern day slave” of a family.
I think the system is fundamentally wrong. I don’t believe the “she is part of the family”. It is pure paternalism.
Not really a job I would enjoy.
Maids in Belgium are very expensive. They got paid on an hourly rate. They know that they are expensive so most of them will work hard and clean a whole house in a few hours. By the way few people can afford a maid.
April 11, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
Oh wow.. this brings back a loooot of memories with our yayas. Haha! I remember the one that we had a few years back.
Our relative just died, so of course we had to attend the funeral. We brought along our yaya and she was too scared to even look at the coffin. So, by the time we got home, aba… ayaw niyang matulog mag-isa. Dun pa natulog sa kwarto ng nanay ko. HAHA! So funny. Kinabukasan, pina-alis na siya. LOL.
But we had some great yayas. Pero the last one we had.. nakakalungkot.. after everything we did for her.. ganun pa ang isusukli sa amin. So sad. After nun, we never hired another yaya.
April 11, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
our househelp.. we treat them as part of the family nowadays…
theres this one.. who was with us for soo many years.. and we often get into counltless of arguments… resulting to “silent treatments”. the silent treatment went on for a year… after that my mom made her leave because its not a good environment for me already…
but now we text each other and she still remembers our birthdays.. .. (shes in Kuwait)… and i hope whatever the thing that was unresolved ages ago.. is ok.
they should be cherished… for those who are meant to be cherished…. but there are really a lot of them who are justt plainnnn annoying.
April 11, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
I don’t think Sidney’s getting the point here. Most maids, I think are not hired to do ALL the household chores but to help their employers in doing household chores(in the Philippines..that’s why they are called katulong). It’s just like any other jobs out there. The difference is that mostly, educational attainment is not a requirement.
Or maybe, Sidney’s just looking it in the way how Europeans and Middle Eastern people(or perhaps we can add Singapore and Malaysia in the line). Some maids can get lucky. If their performing their jobs well and are honest..they get free tertiary education from their “employers” — all expense paid.
April 11, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
their=”they’re performing their jobs well”
April 11, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
I remember our old yayas.. pero ngayon wala na.. we stopped hiring one.. im getting more of a bum each day kasi.. i need to do chores..haha
April 11, 2007 @ 6:21 pm
We dont hire maids anymore kasi nung first time naming mag hire napakasaklap ng experience namin. Masyadong chismosa yung 1st maid namin na kinuha as In hindi siya nag tratrabaho kundi nakikipag chismis sa mga kapitbahay namin. Nakakagigil nga siya eh. Meron pa nung inoff ko na yung TV kasi nga mag araw ng naka on. Akalain ba namang Inon nia uli at muntik ng masunong pinaplantsa nia dahil nakatutuk siya dun sa palabas sa TV. JUSKO. Lmao.
Atleast swerte ka sa maid niyo ngayun at napakasipag.
April 11, 2007 @ 6:39 pm
Yea. Some maids are really irritating (we had one) and some are really nice.
Yung last na katulong namin nag-asawa na at kakapanganak lang kaya wala kami maid ngayon. She is nice. Tita niya yung tinatawag kong Yaya who took care of me nung baby pa ako kasi yung mga magulang ko nagtatrabaho abroad. Yung si Yaya mabait talaga, parang kapamilya na ang turing namin sa kanila. Nag-asawa na din si Yaya, good for her kasi she’s getting old already, 40 na siya, buti she is pregnant now kahit may edad na siya.
Feeling ko medyo swerte kami sa paghire ng katulong, magkakamag-anak kasi sila. Hehe. Ngayon la na kami katulong. Tinetrain na kami ni Mama na magtrabaho sa bahay. May point nga, babae pa naman kami tsaka ilang taon nalang di natin masasabi baka makapag-asawa na. LOL. Just kidding.
BTW, would you mind if I link you?
April 11, 2007 @ 8:09 pm
I’m judging by the other comments that its normal to have a maid? My family, we do it ourselves. And when my parents are too busy, I’ll do it, and when my sister lived at home; she had to aswell.
It’s actually bizarre seeing you talk about these maids as being irritating! Even though I know its not bad, it sounds.. odd to me! I don’t want this to come across the wrong way, and I know you’re paying them and it’s their job; but it just sounds so strange to me!
Just a difference in cultures I guess!
April 11, 2007 @ 8:26 pm
I’ve never experienced having lazy and irritating maids. we’ve only had a couple of maids. our first one, she started to work for our family when I was one year old until I was 9 or 10. She went to Singapore because she could earn more there. Up until now she texts and calls us, and my father met up with her and her employer when he had some business thing at s’pore.
our current maid used to work for my mom’s brother. their family moved to america, so when our first maid went to s’pore, my mom was still in contact with her brother’s maid, and asked her to work for us. she’s really nice. our current maid and our first maid are cousins, and both of them are really hardworking and funny and nice.
wow. i never knew other people have problems with maids. im so lucky we didnt have to go through 10 yayas.
lol.
April 11, 2007 @ 8:39 pm
Paddy: Yes, it’s a difference in cultures. Back here in our country, middle class families can afford to get a maid. So it’s likely to hear that a household have their own maid. Ooohh… it amuses me that people outside the Philippines do not need any maid.
April 11, 2007 @ 9:47 pm
Christian: It’s because Filipinos want other Filipinos to see them as wealthy people. You know how the majority of the Pinoys are. May yaya ako. Mayaman ako, aber!
April 11, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
maganda nga kung meron kayong mahusay na kasambahay pero mas higit na mabuti yung ginagawang mong pag train sa sarili mo na maglinis ng kwarto mo, kasi darating ang araw lalo na college days na mahihiwalay ka sa yaya.
April 11, 2007 @ 11:42 pm
My family had numerous of bad maids before. I remember one of them sneaking foods to give to her boyfriend, and the other maid telling neighbors bad and nasty rumors about us. Man, good thing our present maid is kind-hearted. :]
April 12, 2007 @ 7:50 am
Iskoo: I’m already a college student. But since I go home everyday, di pa ako nahihiwalay sa yaya namin. Lol.
Arlo: I disagree with you, I believe that Filipinos hire maids not because they want to brag about it to other people: “Oh, look we have a new maid! Maiinggit ka!” In our case, we hired a maid because everybody us here in our home leave our place especially when there are classes. We can’t afford to leave our house without somebody because there are so many incidents of “akyat bahay” here in our village. Of course, we also hired a maid so we can do the household chores quickly.
November 11, 2007 @ 12:58 am
meron din akong problems with helpers. although happy ako that they do some of the chores. but not as clean enough.. or good enough.. di masyadong initiative.
i sometimes think they do it on purpose kasi. just to have revenge on us or something everytime i say something what to do or how to do it.
pero one time tinago ko yung peanut butter kasi i was so mad, inubos nila yung peanut butter at choco mix in a span of i think a week.. 
sometimes nakakainis coz if i say something like how to make it right or make some requests, they dont take it as a learning experience. they see it negatively. and then make childish things like, itatapon yung toothbrush.. i was searching my toothbrush and the next few days , nakita ko sa basurahan.. clothes wasnt that clean. sometimes i thing that they just “wash” it literally.
and sometimes if we make some orders, ang itchura ‘di ma-drawing.. T_T and sometimes ang arte pa..
and buy the wrong ones, or the items is not on the store. and they cooked not so well.. they talk behind our backs, it’s too stressful. pinag chismisan sa mga friends nila at sa aming probinsya. i felt betrayed. tatlo sila lahat. contento kami isa lang but hindi naman namin ma-kick out yung dalawa, kasi my aunt supported them sa school, but they stayed in our house. free sila lahat, soaps, shampoos, laundry soaps (sometimes nga madaling maubos lahat coz of their uniforms sa skul they use it every day, and our clothes na ma wash lang once a week) personal needs, sa foods, pareho kaming kinakain.. hindi naman kami madamot, sometimes maubosan pa kami nang pagkain kasi inuubos nila halos, like kung may chocolate, fruits, choco milk, candies, peanut butter, atbp. if magbili nang pizza, cake or any masarap na pagkain magbibigay naman kami. now, hindi na kami masyadong mag buy kasi hindi naman sila marunong mag-share, kung baga left-overs na lang sa amin.
hindi naman kami mayaman pero kailangan talaga kami ng helper kasi busy lahat mga tao sa bahay namin. all i want is someone who can really take care of our house esp when we are out, and have a nice friendly relations with them. i dont know what to do. i hope you can share us some tips from anyone sa success stories nila sa helpers.
=(
August 17, 2008 @ 8:52 pm
One thing I noticed about maids, they used their family members in order to go away for days..well it’s fine but when every week each member of the family is getting sick or dying, it’s something we will never believe at all.. we had maid whose always have an excuse like ” ma’am can i.. blah blah because my father is sick?”, next week, “ma’am, I have to go home because my mother is dead?” every week or other months someone in the family is either sick or dead. One more thing, we also had a maid that uses the AC and TV, She gave me an excuse that she needs the AC on because it’s hot and she turns the tv on because she is bored. What the…. f$%k? She also eat our food in the fridge, which is fine, but please ask or at least let us know, because whenever we look for it, we feel like morons we keep on digging for nothing… I remember one of our maid to, she is falling in love with my bf that’s why she had to leave, last one we had left because she needed a higher salary for goodness sake.. it should be fine only if .. SHE IS DOING HER JOB.. she is always sleeping and seems lost… if we ask her to buy meds from mercury drugs, hours later she will come back with nothing bec she forgot what to buy even if she have the list.. as in… I am sorry but I just need to be honest : she sobrang bobo… eveyrone agree?