Indonesian or Filipino maid

[helpy]

I've heard a lot of good and bad about them. At the stage where I just can't decide which one to go for. Indonesian or Filipino maid. I have a 1yr old child. Please share your experience and advise.

[sistermary]

why have to go for one or the other.  Why not interview whoever is available and pick the one you feel good about. 

[old bag]

Unless religion is an issue eg she doesn't handle pork and you have bacon sarnies every morning, or is uncomfortable with dogs and you have one, nationality is far less important than whether she is a good fit with your family. Keep an open mind and choose based on her personality, attitude and experience and who seems best for the job.

[English Skills]

As my children are very young also and still developing their language skills, the maid's ability to speak easily in English was an important factor for me, irrespective our her nationality.

[happymom]

If you opt for an indonesian maid, you may want to consider her religion. Muslim indonesians cannot eat pork and may be a bit inconvenient to have to cater to this. There are many indonesians that are christians if you need that flexibility.

[HR Guy]

Agree with the above posters. We have had 3 Filipino's and now have an Indonesian maid who is by far the best. The best approach is to work out what you really require from them in level of importance (looking after kids, cleaning, cooking etc) then go to an agency and review the profiles they provide. Then interview each (we took possibly 5 mins of less each one) to get a short list. Then what we did is ask those shortlisted to come to the house for a final interview so we could see them interact with the kids and to show them around to get a reaction on the place. Then we selected the one that we felt would fit best.
You hear lots of pro's and con's of both but to be honest, individual selection is really the only way. Otherwise it is like saying all Australians are this, or all British are that.
Hope it helps!

[Casual first]

Get one from your short list to come over for whole day at the weekend and pay them by the hour to get a better idea on how they will fit in with the family. See if the agency agrees to do that. Mine did and it has worked out great.

[Zanda]

I've heard a lot of good and bad about them. At the stage where I just can't decide which one to go for. Indonesian or Filipino maid. I have a 1yr old child. Please share your experience and advise.

Base from my true experience, Filipino maids are the best tho they may cost a bit more but they are smart and educated maids and they know how to cook and look after your kids/the elderlies and some with degrees etc. they are easy to communicate with and easy to get along.  Some Filipino maids are poor and some are rich but then they're very nice and friendly warm people to hangout with and they never have this revenge or negative feelings towards you.

Whereas for Indonesian maid, majority i can say that they're not educated, they come from a poor family, they're lazy and they have this negative thinking all the time and you simply cannot trust Indonesian maids 101%, if you're bad to them they will treat you bad too, they might use black-magic against you and to your love ones/husband etc.  They will even try to seduce your husband when you're not around or might even do something bad to your baby.  They can even use sugar/salt with some bad prayers added as a black magic against you if you treat them bad so be careful with Indonesian maids, they can be so so nice to you but behind your back they are very very bad with secrets against you.  They also love to hangout with their bunch of friends outside waiting for them and then they started to backstabbed about their employer/Mum and they'll try to get those foreign Bangladesh workers attention to be their boyfriend and have sex with them too.  So Indonesian maids always give trouble....so be very very careful with them.

...good luck

[Caligirl]

Not that Zanda is trying to stereotype any entire nationality or anything like that...

Wow, Z, you must know an awful lot of Indonesian maids if you can speak to the behavorial patterns of the "majority" of them!


OP, I think you've been given some good advice by some of the posters above. Aim to find someone who suits you & your family's needs, regardless of nationality. Best of luck with your search.

[your needs]

I have a filipino maid, she is good at cleaning, Ok at cooking and bad at looking after my kids.
It depends what your needs are. I was looking for someone who would clean. I look after my own kids and cook.
She is really bad with my younger baby who is 9 months.... she really doesn't know how to take care of her. And, she cooked maybe a couple of times in the past month that she has been with us. She is ok not that great. And sometimes I have to tell her how to clean. But, I am actually happy with her. She has a long way to go with certain things but, that's how she will become experienced. You have to teach them your way and your needs.

[zeez]

Maybe Zanda was replaced by an Indonesian maid?    Either that or she has a monumental grudge/prejudice...

[Wierd But]

Everything that Zanda wrote about Indonesian maids applies to Filipino maids as well!

[Or........]

Or, Zanda is one of the growing legion of Filipinos on work passes here. Have you noticed how all the shops and restaurants are full of them these days?

[maidsagain]

I've had a number of maids in the past and based on my own experiences I wouldn't hire a Filippina maid again. I am sure that there are some great ones but I find that we are a cultural mismatch and have had a lot of problems over the past. The most success I've had has been with Sri Lankan maids.

[ahmed from saudi arabia]

we have tried indo filip and serilankan maids,,pls be careful with indo maids they r very very very bad with black magic,,imagin we used more than 15 maids within 10 years all of them almost practicing black magic,,we treated them very nice,but they treated our childrens badly,,notice they seems so inocents,but actually they r the worest ppl in the world,,plus they practicing prostitutions with bangladish workers when we r away from home.
filip and serilankan r good.