Nannies

[oz2sing]

We are moving to sing in Feb with a 2 year old and plan to have another ASAP. We will both be working and are unsure what to do re child care. Many people talk about miads etc and we are wondering if they are qualified to look after infants ? Or are there qualified nannies available. We are happy to pay more for better care.
Any thoughts would be appreciated

[Childcare]

Just from literature I have read local nannies are available, but I am not sure about the training. Sorry I can't offer more suggestions.

[This message has been edited by BoardManager (edited 26-11-2004).]

[Options]

As far as the 2 year old is concerned, you could already enrol him/her in a kindergarten  for a few mornings a week.Our son who is now 4 has been attending a Montessori  Kindergarten since he was 2 and a bit and has really enjoyed it.

As for nannies and maids, its good to hear someone have reservations about leaving their children witha maid.To be honest, we were shocked to find that a lot of people in Singapore hire very young, inexperienced women from Indonesia or the Phillipines as maids, but utilise them as nannies too. I think it is fine if you are hiring someone for general domestic housekeeping (cleaning and cooking and shopping) but I don't think it is fair to them or your children to put that responsibilty on them, too.

In saying that, however, because the practice has gone on for many years, a lot of maids are older, more experienced and have acted as nannies for many families, so its a case of careful selection, interviews etc.

[This message has been edited by BoardManager (edited 26-11-2004).]

[KimmyDoe]

Hi,

I have used a nanny for my son when he was 6M old and I had to go back to work - it was the best thing for all of us as he got to stay at home longer and we still had our privacy in the evenings and weekends. He's now in daycare as I felt he needed more challenges than his toys and walks around but that's a personal decision.

The nanny did not have any formal qualification - just previous experience with references - and was more expensive than a maid. Also -  you won't have the "babysitting-on-tap" option which can be a bummer. Few of my friends have their maids taking care of their children and so far I only hear success stories (of course on this board you can read the opposites too).

Best of luck with the move
Take care,

Kimmy

[This message has been edited by BoardManager (edited 26-11-2004).]

[working mum2]

Have had a very good experience with our Filipino maid.  She has no formal qualifications and had no experience of looking after children (apart from exteneded family) before us.  I wanted to train her myself and it has work very well.  How do I know she is so good?  Because people (often complete strangers) come up to me in the playground and tell me how fantastic my maid is with the children.  One family even tried to lure her away with an offer of more money.  My point is?  You will hear lots of horror stories on this board.  Maid horror stories are a favourite expat wife topic of conversation, particularly those that involve mothers who leave their children with them.  Some are probably true, but my bet is that most aren't.  If you do decide to hire a maid for childcare, my advice would be to stay at home a couple of months to keep an eye on things, or get your mother over to do it for you and only leave your children when you are confident with her.  One good thing is that you can boss a maid around, tell her how you want things done.  In the UK at least, the childminder would have her way of doing things and you would have to fit in with her.  To some extent, this is true with a nanny too.  If she is trained, she will have been trained in a certain way, which may not be your way, and she certainly won't put up with a lot of the things maids have to put up with.  At the end of the day, you will do what you feel most comfortable with but I just wanted you to know that maids can be wonderful.