Tale of Two Maids

Would you clean this up? or pay someone else too.... exactly why I pay someone :)

Right now I am in the process of trying to find someone who is great cleaning the house and great with Belle. I know, I know I am ridiculous but being in a random country with zero family takes a toll! Not to mention no dishwasher, less than average washer/dryer, everything molds, and having to make all my own baby food.

Needless to say I am exhausted just keeping up with Belle and all her meals. It seems that she likes a food for one minute but then hates it the next. Then one minute she wants to feed herself and the next she wants me to feed her. I can't win right now! I pull stuff out of the fridge at the speed of light just trying to find something she will like. By then end of the meal it's like a bomb went off....

In Brazil maids and nannies are entitled to benefits when they work more than two days for someone. This means that when we have someone working for us we will be supporting all the health benefits, retirement, sick pay, sick days, holidays, and paid vacation. These are some of the reasons we hesitated on hiring someone full time. Turns out the more we looked into the subject we found that you spend less to have a maid everyday than you would for just 3 days.

I found a girl that I liked to come and work for us but it turns out she can't work 5 days a week which is what I wanted. Well I found another girl to come in so I could see if I liked her... without firing the other maid. Then it turns out that I don't really like her and I would rather have the number 1 maid work 4 days for me than not at all.

What a mess.

This week the two different maids are cleaning my house while I delicately tiptoe around the hiring and firing. Not really speaking Portuguese leaves both women up for confusion.

Toady though I made the decision to hire Number 1 maid, Rosa, and fire the number 2 maid which has only worked for me once and who thinks that she will be working for me full time. During my talk with Rosa today she is absolutely thrilled to be working for me :) and she loves loves loves Belle. Now I have two days to figure out how I am going to gently fire the other girl... oh my.

Do I fire her at the beginning of the day? The middle? The end? Oh crap.... what have I done! See what little sleep does to me. I bet that none of you feel sorry for me one bit. I don't blame you at all because I judge myself as well. I find it hard to believe that I have a maid full time yet I really can't find the time to shower everyday. Sleep when the baby sleeps so when does the shower come in?? Just sayin.

Well off to sleep while I can and hope that Belle has a good night. Last night was another war zone with her waking every two hours. Poor girl.

Tchau,
Sara