yaya-less, again

since the end of july, hubby and i have been struggling with taking care of the boys. our two yayas have left for the province for personal reasons. yaya jackie, had to leave even if she didn't want to. if she ha a choice she would stay with us, but then, she has a family of her own and her hubby had to go back to work after being ill for a month or so. now, she had to go home and be there for her own kids.

as much as i would not let her go, i understand her. being a mom and all, she has to raise her own family.

yaya donna on the other hand, being young and all at 19 years, had to go home to her ailing mother. again, family duties.

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i would be a hypocrite to say that we rely a lo on household help. it's no joke taking care and looking after 3 rowdy boys. and our family needs all the extra hands we can get.

the past few weeks have been a slow uphill climb. but we managed to survive, with the help of my mom, who, as much as i would want her to rest and enjoy her retirement, had to be on second mommy duty. even if she sometimes complain of being tired as i am, deep inside i can see her enjoying the moment being grandma (mama) to her grandkids. same goes for my dad as well.

admittedly, i miss having those little stolen moments of an hour or so with hubby before we hed home. but sacrifices had to be made. on the other side, the kids are enjoying more time with us. we get to see them awake, tuck them in at night, see them off to school-and even be with them in school.

work may take a back seat for now, since family has to come first. but then, it doesn't mean that i forget about deadlines and other work related things. i just need to do a little adjustment. meetings, deadlines etc.

i tweeted a few days ago that looking for a good yaya is indeed hard. it's not about the workload but the amount of trust you can give a person to take care of your child. i don't go on relying on agencies alone. i have trust issues with those types. i would prefer referrals from friends, those who have first or second hand source into the type of person who's going to take care of my kids 70% of the time.

so at night, i pray that before the month ends, we get to find 2 yaya's that would be a keeper for us.

i hope so, i sure hope so...

the quest for the yaya

as mentioned before, we were faced with the dilemma of looking for a yaya at the last minute because kyle's yaya left at the last minute because of a scruffle. i don't want to go into the details anymore since we've forgiven and forgotten the incident already. we've found a new yaya for kyle/kade, albeit temporarily since she lasted only 3 weeks with us. i can't blame her since she's a mother as well and looking after your kid is every mom's priority. again, we're grateful for the service she gave us, she was a gem but we have to let her go.

anyway, just a little rant while i'm on the topic of yaya hunting. i was able to get a referral from a friend who knows this person who let's say searches for potential yayas. i got in touch with her. after a few sms exchanges, and a short notice meeting, we agreed. hubby and i agreed to travel all the way to commonwealth with the promise that she'll meet with us binging with her the potential yaya. we arrived at 9pm. traffic was hell but we took it all in, for the sake of finding a yaya. we even had kade in tow with us.

after a few sms with her, i found it quite odd that since she's within the area, she was no yet there. i called her up, asked her where she was. the exchange that followed was quite odd:

me: ate nasaan na po kayo? andito na po kami
ate: ay sandali lang po, wala pa po kami dyan, hinihintay ko pa po yung yaya para sa inyo.
me: akala ko po ba na kasama nyo na siya?
ate: ay umalis lang po saglit. magkita na lang po tayo sa may mcdo. i text ko na lang po kayo
me: matagal pa po ba yan kasi alas-9 na po eh taga makati pa po kami.
ate: opo. pahintay na lang po

from there, it was quite odd already. my paranoid self was screaming inside. we must leave now, i think smell a scam. i told hubby to wait for a few mintues, if she texts me, then we'll meet her if she doesn't we'll leave. we waited, had a late dinner even and no text. so i sent her a last message that we can't wait for her anymore and we're leaving. she then sends a message: ay mam, paalis na po kami. mauuna na lang ako para ma meet ko na rin kayo tapos papasunod ko na lang siya dito.

but i declined and told here we've left already. i told her i'll get in touch with her next time if we need her again (i guess this is never haha)

so we went home yaya-less. again.

but blessings come in the form of surprises and the next day my mom told me that she found a yaya for us. (the one mentioned earlier that had to leave after 3 weeks).

but we weren't left yaya less again for long, after a few days, with the help of our trusted labandera/plantsadora, she broguth with her one friday morning our new yaya. and so far she's good. nice to the kids, very attentive, takes initiative and very easy to talk to. i sure hope this one stays longer. this time i'm crossing my fingers.

yaya-less

we had a trying long weekend. hubby and i made plans to take out the three kids since it was a long weekend. but then one thing ruined all our plans.

kyle's yaya left. just like that.

she has been expressing for quite a while that she wanted to leave already but we had to persuade her to stay for a little bit longer. and the last time she asked if she can leave we agreed, on one condition. once we find a replacement, she can leave.

but with the turn of events. her sister working for my MIL, them having a bit of a aquabble, everything that was agreed upon, was left to nothing. when i heard this, i was mad. who wouldn't? taking care of 3 kids is no joke and i need all the extra hands. and here she goes packing up.

what made me more annoyed was the fact that she was just waiting for her monthly salary. once hubby handed it over to her, she grabbed her bags, said her thanks and left.

i don't want to call her an ingrate but from the way she acted. she deserves to be called such.

not to be bitter or anything bu i sure hope their decision to leave would be fruitful and they get to find a much better boss than us. we were never selfish, we always let them go on day offs even if we stated from the start that they can have one once a month. we were that nice. we never treated them as people below us. we treated them nice because they were the second caregivers to my kids when i'm not at home.

but if ever she does come back, i won't accept her anymore. she decided to leave, we decided to look for someone much better.

now i'm hoping the new yaya we'll meet tomorrow would be much better and would be a gem. and i sure hope kyle and keon would like her. the deciding factor would be my kids. they're good judges of character.

trouble in yaya-land

currently, we're facing a new problem on the homefront. by the end of this month, we'll be one yaya short. kyle's yaya has decided to leave and go home to the province to "rest".

this frustrates me to no end since she knows that i'll go back to work first week of september and leaving 3 kids at home is no joke. she could have been a little considerate and told us way before i gave birth.

now we're still waiting for the new yaya to arrive and i've only got less than a week to train her on how to take care of the kids.

dear lord, i hope we get to survive this.