the foreign maid conundrum.
there's a chinese saying,自做自受 which sums up how we create our own problems. i think that best defines the issue of domestic help. recent reports on this long-debated issue only proves how we've yet to nip the problem where it matters.
it all begins with having kids. yes, the government waves that bonus carrot and a whole other slew of incentives. so couples jump on the bandwagon thinking they can manage another mouth so long as they both keep working. so who ends up watching the sprog? if you have some willing parent/s good for you. it's the perfect live-in domestic help who will not only take care of the kid but possibly provide home-cooked meals. this is exactly what the government envisioned as the halcyon arrangement with their priority housing for 'three-tier generations'. all good and well if said grandparents are of excellent health and able to give chase to toddlers with the attention span of an ant.
so this led to another alternative -- the domestic maid who was willing to work for a pittance and be treated almost like a prisoner in her employer's home. she who emerged usually from an agrarian tradition of rural spaces and simple ideology, was expected to be cooped in a <100sqm abode, looking after children which weren't her own, cleaning the house and making the meals, all this in her late teens or early 20s, hormones possibly raging, cabin fever escalating, while the sprogs either bawl incessantly or restlessly find any new form of potential household hazard to amuse themselves with. put all this together and you get a timebomb -- either a maid who loses it and abuses the kids or the employers who return home dog-tired from working overtime who take it out on that stranger in their house only because they feel justified from having paid her pittance of a salary and more to the government's tax levies so like most singaporeans who expect value for money, they are going to make sure this peasant girl handles the household like a trained professional nanny.
point is, this unhappy cycle - maid comes here, homesick and lonely, has different values and culture, mostly lacking education, works in household of demanding yuppies, feels alienated so seeks companionship in friends or lovers, cooped up in home with small children 24/7 - will only perpetuate if the government continues to provide such a liberal channel to hiring them. why don't they just review the policies on foreign domestic workers and make more provisions for quality day care and better still, allow for family-friendly corporations to accomodate more in-house day care so the parents can literally bring their grubs to work? this will stop the entire over-reliance on domestic help and the problems which come with hiring them.
i don't know. it's one of those catch-22 situations but i look at other developed countries and it seems that only this maid issue plagues countries like ours (think hong kong, malaysia) where we have yet to learn how to raise our kids independently without relying too much on our parents or paid external help.
so it comes back to the point of how we create problems for ourselves. why have kids in the first place if we don't have time to raise them?
it all begins with having kids. yes, the government waves that bonus carrot and a whole other slew of incentives. so couples jump on the bandwagon thinking they can manage another mouth so long as they both keep working. so who ends up watching the sprog? if you have some willing parent/s good for you. it's the perfect live-in domestic help who will not only take care of the kid but possibly provide home-cooked meals. this is exactly what the government envisioned as the halcyon arrangement with their priority housing for 'three-tier generations'. all good and well if said grandparents are of excellent health and able to give chase to toddlers with the attention span of an ant.
so this led to another alternative -- the domestic maid who was willing to work for a pittance and be treated almost like a prisoner in her employer's home. she who emerged usually from an agrarian tradition of rural spaces and simple ideology, was expected to be cooped in a <100sqm abode, looking after children which weren't her own, cleaning the house and making the meals, all this in her late teens or early 20s, hormones possibly raging, cabin fever escalating, while the sprogs either bawl incessantly or restlessly find any new form of potential household hazard to amuse themselves with. put all this together and you get a timebomb -- either a maid who loses it and abuses the kids or the employers who return home dog-tired from working overtime who take it out on that stranger in their house only because they feel justified from having paid her pittance of a salary and more to the government's tax levies so like most singaporeans who expect value for money, they are going to make sure this peasant girl handles the household like a trained professional nanny.
point is, this unhappy cycle - maid comes here, homesick and lonely, has different values and culture, mostly lacking education, works in household of demanding yuppies, feels alienated so seeks companionship in friends or lovers, cooped up in home with small children 24/7 - will only perpetuate if the government continues to provide such a liberal channel to hiring them. why don't they just review the policies on foreign domestic workers and make more provisions for quality day care and better still, allow for family-friendly corporations to accomodate more in-house day care so the parents can literally bring their grubs to work? this will stop the entire over-reliance on domestic help and the problems which come with hiring them.
i don't know. it's one of those catch-22 situations but i look at other developed countries and it seems that only this maid issue plagues countries like ours (think hong kong, malaysia) where we have yet to learn how to raise our kids independently without relying too much on our parents or paid external help.
so it comes back to the point of how we create problems for ourselves. why have kids in the first place if we don't have time to raise them?