Let two small families share one maid

Let two small families share one maid
12:05 PM Jan 21, 2011
Letter from Gul Arora
This is with reference to the news of several maid agencies raising the salaries of Indonesian maids.
This is the age of small families with only one child. I myself am a single mother with an eight-year-old child. The question here is, do I really need a full-time maid? I do not - and yet, however, I do need someone's help to take my child to school, bring her back, and stay with her at home when I have to stay back late at the office.

Many will say, why not use a registered part-time maid? My experience with the part-time maid agencies has been a nightmare, with their reliability highly questionable. In any case, if I employ a part-time maid even for three hours, five times a week, at the current rate of $15 to $18 an hour, it would be equivalent to the cost of a full-time maid.
Many will also say, why not use a childcare centre? Well, is it better for the child to be in their own home or in an alien place? Also, it puts a strain on the child (and the parent) to have the child get up early all cranky from lack of sleep, in order to drop him or her off at the centre. I have seen children clinging to their parents, weeping.
So, where does leave us sandwiched-class Singaporeans, with the expenses of keeping a maid getting astrononical?
I suggest that the Ministry of Manpower allow two small families - each comprised of no more than three members - to employ a maid on shared basis. This way, they can split the cost of the maid. While I do realise that this might burden the maid, it's worth noting that maids often look after bigger families of five to six people.
This letter is only available online.
URL http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110121-0000428/Let-two-small-families-share-one-maid
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