SAHM to FTWM

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HappyMommy

New Member
Hi mummies,

I am currently a SAHM, gg back to work in 1 mth's time.
Going to put my DS in infant care, he is turning 1 year soon. Very very bu she de. :bsad:But economy so bad, if got job better work.
I am running a one man show here. When start working, i will fetch him home, must cook dinner for him as well.
Mummies can share how you managed to get dinner done on time. Thought of buying those fuzzy logic rice cooker. Dunno useful or not? I am currently using slow cooker to cook his porridge but since it has no timer, cannot use it next time.
 
Phoebii Cheng

Phoebii Cheng

Well-Known Member
Hi Happymummy,

I am a FTWM too.....before my son turn 1, normally my hubby will fetch him and when we reach home, we will prepare porridge for him, since it is easier to cook....but before tht we prepare like the veges, we cut into little pieces 1st and pre-cook the stock to be used within 3 days and meat oso cut into little pieces so save time.....

After my son turn 1, sometime too lazy to cook, so we bought like soupy noodles like wanton noodles or fish soup, then we gave him a bit, but without the soup of cos.....now tht he can take more variety of food, so we take it easy oso, not really hv to cook everyday except weekend
 
H

HappyMommy

New Member
i worry not enuf time to cook lor. dunno whether have to work late or not. but i will not think so much first until i start work. what kind of stock do u use? how u make? normally i put all the ingredients into the slow cooker to cook e porridge.

i slowly letting my DS try outside food liao. but outside food quite salty so i will rather cook. but if no time, also no choice lor.
 
maine78

maine78

Member
There's this "magic cooker" which u can try.. Before you left for work, put in the rice, fish, meat, veg and boil the metal pot till it boils and place it in the thermal case. Will be cooked when u come home.. :)

Just my concern: Is yr employer aware that you can't work overtime and you need to leave on time to pick up yr baby? What happens when you are required to work overtime? Who will pick up yr baby?
 
H

HappyMommy

New Member
i got e magic cooker but it did not cook the rice to soft porridge. maybe i will try again.

think my employer should be quite ok with me picking up my child la. worse, will get MIL to travel there to pick him lor. sigh... how i wish i can continue to be a SAHM.
 
i1babes

i1babes

Member
HappyMommy said:
i got e magic cooker but it did not cook the rice to soft porridge. maybe i will try again.

think my employer should be quite ok with me picking up my child la. worse, will get MIL to travel there to pick him lor. sigh... how i wish i can continue to be a SAHM.
Click to expand...
just passing by ..... wonder wat's mean FTWM ...( full time work mummy ?)
 
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Ottermum

Ottermum

Member
stay at home mum-SAHM
part time working mum-PTWM
full time working mum-FTWM:001_302::001_302::001_302:
 
maine78

maine78

Member
HappyMommy said:
i got e magic cooker but it did not cook the rice to soft porridge. maybe i will try again.

think my employer should be quite ok with me picking up my child la. worse, will get MIL to travel there to pick him lor. sigh... how i wish i can continue to be a SAHM.
Click to expand...

Maybe u trial n error yr cooker again.. Maybe it's the timing? My friend used her magic cooker to cook porriage for her dd. So far so good.

Good, at least u got yr MIL as a fallback to help you pick up yr child. :)
 
S

stonston

Well-Known Member
regarding the porridge part, u can try this:
morning b4 go work u put rice (grind it slightly by pounding it), meat and vege into a thermo flask (for porridge type), then pour boiling hot water into it. by e time u reach home, it's cooked le :)

i've tried this b4 when i had to send my terrible maids home n waitin for new maid to arrive. u gotta play ard with the amt of water though.
 
I

imrouge

New Member
Hi Mummies,

I'm a SAHM. Intend to go back to work now that my second child is 8months. I'm deciding between sending my baby to infant care(same place as my elder son's childcare centre) or getting a maid for my mum who is also looking after my sis's 3month old baby. My concerns on the 2 options.

Infant care - Not sure if I can manage picking my 2 children from the centre at the same time after work. Carry my baby using baby carrier then hold my 3yr old elder son's hand and squeeze up the bus with school bags. My husband drives to work but sometimes he need to work OT so can't commit to pick up the kids. Currently my father-in-law helps to pick my elder son when my husband can't pick him. Another problem is reach home still need to prepare dinner. My elder son is a fussy eater so he eats very little at the childcare and by the time he reach home, he can be quite hungry. Not sure he can wait for me to cook. I can't cook very well also. Scared baby fall sick easily then I need to take many leave days to look after baby. Advantage is teachers there are trained so can help a lot with their development but it's not 1:1.

Maid - Maid will stay with my mum Mon-Fri, weekends will afternate between my sis and my place since we are sharing the costs. Not sure if maid would mind a not because she needs to manage 3 households but pretty easy since we all live in 4-room flats in the same neighbourhood. Scared of maid problems since we never had a maid before. Advantage is we dun need to rush back after work to pick up the kids and we can settle dinner at my mum's place. Flexibility of letting our babies to stay over at my mum's place if we got programmes. Unlike infant care, mum will most likely let baby watch tv cos she also watch at the same time.

Haiz.. Very difficult to decide. Infant care seems more straight forward but need to worry on picking up, dinner and baby fall sick. If I chose infant care, I need to get a part-time helper to come on weekends to do household chore. If I get a good maid, can relieve us from chores so that we can spend time with our kids but bad maid a lot more problems. Plus it's 3 household, scared maid can't handle and go complain to embassy.

Any advice? I need to decide fast cos if I decide to get a maid, I need to inform the infant care to give up the vacancy to someone else before this coming March.
 
C

CherryFrozz

Member
HIya imrouge,

Just curious, how long were u SAHM?

Can't comment on maid but for infant care experienced before is very tricky, unless your company is those kind more understanding. And working hours ok.
Was working full time and rushed to pick up son everyday as hubby work pretty late most times... very stressed everyday. Sometimes I also had to work late, so had to ask hubby at times to help fetch regardless. (he also need to ask his collegues for help in such times, so can't be too often). So in order to reduce this fr happening too often I tried to work fast, tried to go work early, sometimes cut my own lunch time etc etc etc...just so I can fetch son.

Somemore if your child new to childcare/infant care surely sick very often - esp fever jiat lak can't send to infant care. And yes, dinner you need to definately prepare beforehand, so that you can cook fast when come home in evening.

Had trouble taking urgent leaves also (when son sick), due to short of manpower. Was questioned pretty often by mgmt why can't I work out alternative arrangement. Eventually had to leave the company cause really cannot balance anymore. <hoped to get retrenched, but no such luck!>
So, really depends on your company, & your nature of work.

Personally I want to get maid, but hubby against it. Sigh...

imrouge said:
Hi Mummies,

I'm a SAHM. Intend to go back to work now that my second child is 8months. I'm deciding between sending my baby to infant care(same place as my elder son's childcare centre) or getting a maid for my mum who is also looking after my sis's 3month old baby. My concerns on the 2 options.

Infant care - Not sure if I can manage picking my 2 children from the centre at the same time after work. Carry my baby using baby carrier then hold my 3yr old elder son's hand and squeeze up the bus with school bags. My husband drives to work but sometimes he need to work OT so can't commit to pick up the kids. Currently my father-in-law helps to pick my elder son when my husband can't pick him. Another problem is reach home still need to prepare dinner. My elder son is a fussy eater so he eats very little at the childcare and by the time he reach home, he can be quite hungry. Not sure he can wait for me to cook. I can't cook very well also. Scared baby fall sick easily then I need to take many leave days to look after baby. Advantage is teachers there are trained so can help a lot with their development but it's not 1:1.

Maid - Maid will stay with my mum Mon-Fri, weekends will afternate between my sis and my place since we are sharing the costs. Not sure if maid would mind a not because she needs to manage 3 households but pretty easy since we all live in 4-room flats in the same neighbourhood. Scared of maid problems since we never had a maid before. Advantage is we dun need to rush back after work to pick up the kids and we can settle dinner at my mum's place. Flexibility of letting our babies to stay over at my mum's place if we got programmes. Unlike infant care, mum will most likely let baby watch tv cos she also watch at the same time.

Haiz.. Very difficult to decide. Infant care seems more straight forward but need to worry on picking up, dinner and baby fall sick. If I chose infant care, I need to get a part-time helper to come on weekends to do household chore. If I get a good maid, can relieve us from chores so that we can spend time with our kids but bad maid a lot more problems. Plus it's 3 household, scared maid can't handle and go complain to embassy.

Any advice? I need to decide fast cos if I decide to get a maid, I need to inform the infant care to give up the vacancy to someone else before this coming March.
Click to expand...
 
L

lsy

Active Member
Childcare not that straight forward...
-u need to prepare their bags everyday
-tons of clothing to wash , bath towel etc
-Not to mention the norm of getting sick and risk of HFMD
-Your 6 days Child Care leave will be burned coz child care centre close on certain dates

I'm in similar situation too. No one at home dont think we are able to hire maid. Hard to find trustworthy maids nowadays (Maid who is still discipline despite no one in the house type).
 
E

ebi

New Member
I am also a full time working mom, sent my baby to infant care since she was abt 4 mths, really not easy to manage work and baby at the same time, with all the sending, fetching, and dinner cooking, everyday very stress to rush home to fetch and cook dinner for her, coz she resist to eat if dinner is over 7pm as she is very tired by then, so.... everyday is crazy and stressful, i do break down some time. in addition, we need to see doctor almost twice every mth and she had HFMD from her cc when she abt 8mths, i was very bad and sad to see her sufferred as she counldn't sleep, eat or drink as she had ulcers all over her mouth and end up we have to force her for milk with string (like how we give medcine) even my gal now 2 yr old I still heartache to that HFMD expereince.

I think the choice of having a maid or infant care is really a personal choice, but is it really not that straight forward in putting in infant care.
 
I

imrouge

New Member
Hi CherryFrozz,

Have stayed home for 8 months already.

Hi Isy and Eby,

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Have read from other mummies about the pros of infant care but seems like infant care a lot of cons also. Think a lot of companies expect work committment so will be difficult for them to understand why mummies always take urgent leave or can't stay for OT. I've decided to get a maid to help my mum.
 
JP12

JP12

New Member
Hi mummies. I've a question for FTWMs. How hard was it to leave your child and go back to wrk? I may go back to work but then it involves traveling quite often..but not sure how much travel oso, it all depends on quiet/busy seasons. So not sure if this is bad for my child. Oso, whether shld leave him alone w maid at home...? Anyone does this currently? Besides child care, are there any other organizations that offer classes full day ie. morning till evening? How about nannies? Anyone hires full time nanny to go to your house to look after your baby? Of coz those nannies u can trust perhaps..? Can full time nannies be found easily? Cost?
 
C

CherryFrozz

Member
If I were u I will not do dat. At least haf someone else wif maid is better....as far as I know only childcare organization does this kinda work. Nannies more flexi can fetch later but full time nanny normally will look after the child at their own home, not the clients. Fr wat I hear nannies cost seem quite ok bah few hundred? But never engage b4 not so sure

Hmmm if u haf relative live near u (stay at Hm type) . Mayb can consider put maid n baby at her hse while u work? Dat way best of both worlds person u trust plus more flexi 4 ur work schedule? I got friend do dat seems pretty ok.
 
JP12

JP12

New Member
Hi CheeryFrozz, Thanks for yur reply. Yes, I strongly think it's not wise to leave baby alone w maid. Both sides parents not avail to help. No relative sty near us. But nearby, maybe a friend with her own kids n a maid.. but then it'll b too imposing esp. long term. It will not work out I guess.
 
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