THE DAY THAT WE STARTED DOING THE HOUSE CHORES ALL BY OURSELVES
It’s a Saturday and as I log in to my Dashboard today, only then I realized it’s been a week since my last update here. Life has been so busy the past week. I was able to still go online though, but mostly just for plurking with friends. Plurking has been my source of relieving some stress, that much as I attempted to put words to thoughts I have in mind whenever I clicked on the Write Page, it led me to nothing but staring at a blank, and then logging out, and then leading me back again to see what’s latest on Plurk.
My bad, I know. But never can I put blame on Plurk. It would be unfair to have it as an excuse. Fact is, I have so many things to write but much as my already idle mind is somewhat willing, chores at home coupled with some really urgent work stuff tired my physical side at the end of day. Why?
Because we’re left with no kasambahays since Sunday last week (errr, make that Saturday night, to be more exact). Long story and Hubby and I tried as much as we could just to understand them better. You know, when you have kasambahays, you have to deal with them with great patience because you understand they needed a little more pushing “just because”. Great patience, as in even at my worsts days when am having some hormonal imbalances of some sort (you know, when your PMSing, the days when progesterone is less than the estrogen?), I still have to treat them with all calmness. But all things have its limits and when they go beyond boundaries and relations with them become too unhealthy already, they need to go.
The first one, we decided to let go the moment we noticed she had already abused her privilege to do some sideline work even at workdays. It was easy on our part to decide that she has to go since the household wasn’t that much affected as she does little work anyway. But the second one was a different story. She’s been with us for three years and let’s just say, she was “the trusted one”. But knowing we had confidence on her, she abused and went over her limit. We gave her so many chances to prove herself, but we got tooooo tired already so we finally let her go too, regardless how heavy it was for us. I would not want to give details what she did this time, but it was something that really made our blood boiling to points .Pasaway talaga, walang pinagka tandaan! Tsk. Tsk.
Anyway, since Sunday, Hubby and I are sharing all the housework. I wake up pretty early than usual to cook our breakfast. And because I’ve been called to report for work for some very urgent matters last week, I readied almost everything my boys will be needing like cooking their lunch early on that they can just conveniently reheat. While I’m away, Hubby takes care of the Little Boy. From preparing his milk, to joining him to eat, to giving his vitamins, helping the Little Boy in bathing, playing with him, preparing him for school—the Hubby does it for Nico. The Hubby also does the cleaning in the house and I must say he’s very good at it compared to me. He washes the dishes, he cleans the toilet, and he sweeps and mops the floor very diligently. 
At 1PM, the moment Nico’s picked up by the school bus, Hubby’s off to collecting the ingress from our newspaper sub-dealers. I’m then home at around 4PM, just a few minutes early and Nico will be dropped by the school service. Then it would be my turn to take care of everything in the house. After our afternoon snacking, I prepare our dinner right away. Thanks to my Little Kitchen Helper, I get the most help that I need. 
And mind you, he’s more than willing to set our dining table ready.
The Hubby usually arrives between 6-7PM, and three of us eat dinner together. After a little family siesta, I prepare the Little Boy for bath time and then sleep. It’s a good thing that Nico doses off pretty early (around 7:30 to 8PM), Hubby and I still have time for some relaxation before calling it a day. Well, at least on my part I enjoy the privilege to sleep for a few more hours. But for Hubby, his next day starts at the strike of 12MN when he’s already up to monitor and check on how the newspaper dealership is going. Last week, he needed to troubleshoot some areas in Quezon City, so he’s off to the road by then and then comes home by 4-5AM.
And for today, a weekend, I took care of doing the laundry while the Hubby did the pamamalengke. Tomorrow, Hubby will iron the clothes—his expertise of all the house chores.
It’s pretty tiring and Hubby and I are both adjusting. It’s like taking a refresher course (on housechores that is, haha!) or something since we’re used to depending on kasambahays to do certain things for us. But we thought this is new arrangement is for the best and we decided to keep it up this way. I hope. *fingers crossed* It’s just a matter or prioritization lang and getting more organized to do certain things in order.
We came to realize that we can accomplish so many things all by ourselves, without seeking or needing the help of someone else. It helped too that Nico’s a little bigger now. The shadow of a Yaya isn’t that badly needed because he can do most things all by himself anyway. And count to think of it, we realized wala namang ibang mag-aalaga ng maayos sa anak namin, kundi kami din lang.
10 responses so far
when...
Feng, that is both good news and bad news.Good news since you were able to get rid of those yayas. Bad news is that you have to do those chores without help.
You can certainly manage that since you only have one kid. Whereas I have three and we have been able to mange for five years without help. Oh, we do have help, like the clothes being brought and washed in the laundry shop (I think you should try this arrangement) and there is the manang who comes to clean the backyard.
Sometimes I feel that the house really needs some serious cleaning pero pikit-mata na din lang kahit medyo superficial ang paglilinis.
Kaya nyo yan
julies last blog post..Color My World
hi T.Julie!
siguro lang, we should view this latest development to work for our advantage.
I really hope we can get things done, the housechores especially, without kasambahays. it’s a big adjustment since we’re used to having kasambahays doing the mundane tasks for us, but I’m positive Hubby and I will get used to this new set up sooner on. what’s important is that we both take the effort to cooperate and share the chores naman, diba.
five years managing everything without help? that sure is an accomplishment. you’re right, everything should just be manageable since I just have one kid. I can only imagine how you and Hubby went through the phase of raising three kids without the help. maliliit pa sina Julian at Tania noon.
pero look at what benefit it brought you. the kids are very independent at very well-behaved. I hope we can instill the same discipline to Nico. eh, malapit ko na rin syang i train mag wash ng dishes. 
well, we have some sort of help too as far as laundry is concerned–the wash machine. but I doubt if it will beat the cleaning that manual washing of clothes do. so ang plan ko is to at least have a laundry woman wash the clothes manually once a month.
naku, kaya nyo yan.
wala kaming helper for…4 years already.
we have become very comfortable to the point where we prefer not having an employee, kaya kahit may naga-apply sa amin hindi na namin tinatanggap.
it doesn’t mean that the house is perfect, oh no no no! but we’re comfortable with the set up.
kung kaya namin, kaya nyo rin.
lady cesss last blog post..My Backyard
hi Cess! naku, thank your for the words of encouragement!
I agree, anything for the good of the entire household, that’s what important. and because the setup (without the househelpers) is the one comfortable with you, that should bring harmony and happiness in the family.
eh dito sa amin, may kasambahay ka nga, mangungunsumi ka naman sa mga pagiging pasaway, eh better, wag na lang di ba.
ay hindi pala 4 years, mga 2 1/2 years pa lang pala. our last helper was when my daughter was about 6 or 7 months old. pero in fairness…
lady cesss last blog post..My Backyard
oh, 4 1/2 pa pala! milestone na yan Cess.
lalo tuloy akong na inspire na kayanin ang bagong setup namin. thanks! 
Hi Feng. I remember last summer when our kasambahays went on vacation. Even though we have a small house, it still took a lot of effort to do the chores on our own. With hubby’s help, I’m happy to say that we managed quite well.
It’s great that you and your hubby are coordinating your schedules and sharing the chores very efficiently. Letting Nico help out sounds like good training for him. Good luck and hope everything works out.
Rach (Heart of Rachel)s last blog post..Weekend Snapshot #38
Hi Rach! yes, I remember that vacation of your kasambahays. that was the time Yohan learned to eat on his own.
and good for you. hopefully, Hubby and I would learn to adjust pretty soon. cooperation and being more organized should do the trick, right?
there was a time when we had no help. doing the chores was fine, since there’s just the three of us. what was hard was settling the issue of who will take care of our daughter when we were at work. ang nangyari, we took the kid to work. on the days when it was impossible to do so, i worked from home and relied on email to get things done. hay naku, the perils of parenthood. but then, nalulusutan naman, di ba?
Annas last blog post..Coffee Talk
exactly Anna. thank goodness for understanding employers like ours, pwedeng gawing daycare center ang Office. haha! my Boss allows me to work from home and most of the time, email email na lang din kami. mas maganda nga ang ganun kasi they get to keep the employee’s commitment. mas marami pa ngang na a accomplish eh.