Any working mums with two helpers?

S

sherwes

Registered User
Hi, I would like to hear from mums (working or otherwise but particularly working mums) who employ two helpers. I will return to work when my little girl is 8 months old and my son is 27 months old. When I am not at work I want to spend all of my time with my children so basically I want to outsource almost everything else!

My current helper is just fantastic with my children. Therefore I'd like to keep my current helper as the babysitter when I am at work and hire a second helper to do the shopping, cooking and half of the cleaning. Of course, the second helper will need to do some babysitting when my current helper is out at playgroup with the other child.

I don't want to ask my current helper to share a room so the second helper would be live out.

I'd appreciate any advice as to how the split up their duties, how to try to ensure that they get along and any other tips.

Thanks ladies...
 
I'd like to know too.
In the thinking stage of getting a second helper.
It's hard coming home everyday after a long work day and instructing the helper about dinner preparation when all I want to do is hang out with my child.
 
Hi both

I am a working mum with 2 helpers. It wasn't easy finding the second helper and it would have been easier if the first helper had a relative who was interested in working in HK (she didn't). Our first helper is older (40+) and it helped that the second helper is in her 20s, and so naturally defers to the first one. Still, you can't rely on the first one to allocate responsibilities to the second one - for one thing, it might create bad feeling. So we drew up a list of household chores and times, and basically allocated chores to each person depending on the time of day.

For us, what worked was for each helper to have some 'child time' and to have some 'chore time'. In reality, once the initial 'framework' was set up, both helpers were fairly flexible with the routine and adapted it to suit the circumstances. For example, no one likes ironing, but they seem to have worked out a system where they take turns.

It's not easy having 2 helpers, but we're lucky that both seem to get along pretty ok. FYI, before we hired the second helper, one helper we tried out was totally unsuitable. She was really nice at interview but later kept trying to put down the first helper in front of us, and tried to take all the 'easy' chores for herself. That obviously didn't work out!

Good luck!
 
I have 2 helpers at home, and frankly managing them can be as hard work as doing the chores yourself. There is no way to guarantee they get along, although when I recruited the second one I had my first one come along so they can chat with each other.

I guess you have to make it clear who does what. One is fully responsible for taking care of the baby and the other the household chores . I used to have them rotate for some days of the week, but sometimes this does not always work, because if one of them are sloppy then the other will have to pick up after them the next day. So now I jsut have each of them do diff stuff so its very clear who is accountable for what......
 
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