Monday, May 17, 2010

Babysitters

Was reading about the 8-month old baby who died at the hands of his babysitter...how heartbreaking it was to his parents...Sampai hati babysitter tu, kan?! and mind you, this is not an isolated case...its not the first and i'm afraid it won't be the last....

i kesian kat young parents in this big city today...its not easy...especially when both has to go out an earn a living. Kalau tak dapat live-in maid, they have to send the children to babysitters. No much choice there. Either way...they have to leave their children in the hands of other people, more often strangers to the family, in the beginning at least. You simply have to trust those people...

I had my share of babysitters when my girls were babies tapi alhamdulillah, rezeki anak-anak i murah in that sense...they had very loving babysitters!

First, when KakLong and KakNgah were babies, we had Abah's long lost relative who lived near us then (Gombak) take care of them. Ohhh...Ani (the kids called her Umi), her parents and her children treated the girls like their own!! They took care of KakLong and KakNgah better than I did! I never took leave when the girls were unwell, coz Ani and her mom would know better what to do to comfort them!! Everytime we send the girls after the weekend, Ani's dad (Atuk) will question us about the scratches and the mosquito bites!! haiyaaa...Sadly, after almost 2 years, we had to move to Melaka.

In Melaka, we sent the girls to Abah's cousin, who called herself Mak. Again, Mak and her family took care of KakLong and KakNgah like their own...so much so that when we decided to take in a live-in Indon maid, she really merajuk with us!

Cut long story short, that maid ran away and by that time we had little Sarah. I asked Mak whether she can take the girls back but she refused. Sigghhhh...macam tulah orang Melayu kalau dah berkecik hati...so, we had to send them all to this tiny nursery run by this lady called Umi Munah and her sister in law called Umi Fiza. They had just opened and we were their first "clients". The nursery is a tiny little building attached to Umi Munah's mom's house. So, Nek Jah was also around to take care of the girls! Again, an entire family took to caring and loving my little girls!! We are so blessed! I remember one time, I was busy talking to Umi when KakNgah fell and hurt her head. Umi's husband simply scooped her up and ran to his car and drove off to a nearby hospital!! It took me a while to realize what was happening and chase after them! hahaha....

and then we had to move again...to Putrajaya...and our "adventures" with the Indon maids began...thats a whollle story for another time pulak laarrr....

Till today, we try very hard to keep in touch with all the Umis and Maks. At least during HariRaya. I never want the children to forget them..We owe them....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kesian kan Muzal..I'm scared to think about our kids when they become parents themselves kan.

We were lucky like you too, the first maid (yg I selalu complain kuat membebel)took all the 4 of my kids till the youngest was 2 1/2 yr old. She liked to feed them sampai montel! We owe her a lot too.

Ja

Anonymous said...

Considering all the other nasty stories I've heard about maids and babysitters, you've been very lucky indeed. Tuah anak2 giteww....

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