Back to superwoman mode (The Chronicles of Bibik Hampeh)

This is Part 1 of The Chronicles of Bibik Hampeh

I fired my maid and am now back to the old bibikless mode. It's not that difficult. It was as if I have this jumper in my mind where I can just toggle between the with-bibik and bibikless mode.

Now that she's gone I kept on questioning myself what was I thinking when I decided to hire one? Hmmmm... was it because I was about to have a new baby? Or was it because I got tired from scrubbing the 3 bathrooms we have in the house? Well, perhaps I decided to have a bibik because I needed an adult to be home when Wazif and Shawqi come home for lunch.

Initially we planned to send the baby to the nearest daycare, but when the bibik proved herself that she could take a good care of Zarif we didn't enroll him at the daycare. Since Zarif was a healthy baby and easy to care for , he stayed home with the bibik.

The first few months was quite ok. Not that good, very far from perfect... the bibik's attitude and work quality was just so-so. I didn't complain much although her hygiene was a bit of a concern. I just couldn't understand why she needed to recycle the cooking oil 5-6 times. According to her cooking oil is expensive. Even when I told her it can make everybody sick, she never really listened to me. After getting tired of having to remind her about the cooking oil, I just threw away the oil she planned to recycle.

However, I couldn't find a way to make sure she defrost food before cooking. She thought it's OK to fry frozen sausage/fish/meat. How was I to explain the importance of defrosting when she didn't understand Chemistry? I had to closely monitor her when she cooked. I went to office later than usual because I had to make sure she cooked properly. What a waste of time! Oh wait, did I mention that she used her right hand to wash Zarif after he poo-poo? Yucksssss!

I also caught her several times mixing yesterday's rice (yang dah almost basi) with the rice she's cooking that almost make me puke there and then. When I complained, she said 'Jangan dibuang nasi... sayang. Kesian petani.' So I told her to cook just enough rice for everybody so that there'll be no leftover. Problem solved.

In terms of other houseworks she was seriously incompetent. Perhaps she couldn't differentiate between dusty, clean and dirty. She'd never clean/wipe the stove, kitchen cabinet, tv cabinet, dining table unless I instructed her so. When she's not doing the laundry or sweeping the floor or taking care of the baby, she'd just sat on the sofa and watch TV - her favorite ASTRO channels! She even told my MIL to go and watch the small TV in her room because she wanted to watch ASTRO.

If that's not rude enough, well one day about 1 month before her first pay was due, she confronted my MIL demanding her salary. My MIL knew nothing about the arrangement so she just told her to refer to me. The bibik's mood turned sour and she just went up to her room and left the baby downstairs. She didn't feed Zarif or played with him for the rest of the day.

I was really pissed off when I learned about what happened that day. I told Mr Hubby to just send her back to the agency. That's how easy the decision was made. I couldn't stand her rudeness, stubbornness, unhygienic ways and mostly for being pretentious in front of me. I have millions of other things to think about than having to watch all her drama.

To be continued......