Not Idiot Proof Enough
It’s almost a month since I asked the yaya to leave, and until now, I haven’t found somebody to replace her. Since then, I assumed the role of a mostly a stay-at-home mom (mostly, since I still go to work some days). It has been pretty easy taking care of the little man, compared when he was younger. I could turn my back away from him and just let him play with his dinos, watch jurassic warpath videos or his “feydurit” tv shows while I surf endlessly and covet bags that I cannot afford or daydream of Vegas vacations 
! You may think this is crazy but I window shop a lot for baby stuff too! 
I already even bookmarked some of my favorite baby-related websites and even have a wishlist of all things baby-related at amazon! At times I realize that this is a waste of time, so I stop and try to do something productive like, say, organize my home?
First on my impossible list is the meal plan. You see, I just got tired of hearing my helper asking, “Ma’am, anong ulam ngayon?”. So instead of me hearing that line every single day, I created a meal plan. I just downloaded a free template from the internet, printed it out, wrote down dinner menus, and there you go! I have a month’s worth of dinner planned (for my family, it’s really just simple since all the helper needs to prepare is dinner). Here’s the template that I used, which you can download here:
Second, closet organization. From my 3 years experience of handling helpers, I learned that giving out instuctions to helper is like giving instructions to a child. Instructions must be super duper specific, they must be repeated several times, and they must be followed-up every so often. So I created a idiot proof way of telling my helper how to organize the closet:
Now, If the househelp doesn’t get that, ewan ko na lang. Ewan ko na nga lang because when opened this drawer this morning, a pile of handtowels were placed on top of the “briefs area” 
omigulay.
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Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm under
i give up on letting our helpers (before) fix the clothes of joaqui. so now i really spend time for this.
goodluck kel! lagyan mo pa kaya ng post it yan. “wag patungan ang brief ni manu!” hahaha
June 6th, 2009 at 2:24 amever since i remember, my mom posts a weekly menu of all the meals for that week on the corkboard in our kitchen. she’s already created around 5 weeks worth where she doesn’t repeat a single meal
but of course, if we request a specific dish, the cook would oblige but the menus saves the effort nga of having her ask us all the time what’s the ulam.
June 6th, 2009 at 6:02 ami hope the nanny gets your instructions soon. i imagine how frustrating it is to train a nanny & helper talaga.
June 7th, 2009 at 5:54 pmhahaha! I love this post! I myself have a schedule for the helpers on what to do since kagulo sila minsan kung sino ang gagawa! Hay, and that menu planner is really a good help. Now that im tending to a real household unliked before na kakain na lang ako, I also find myself preparing a weekly menu which I now give to the “cook” Oh I hope you get to get a new yaya/maid soon!
June 7th, 2009 at 6:13 pmnaku peachy, mamumuti na ang buhok dito sa isang househelp ko na ito. pero in fairness, masipag sya. kelangan lang turuang maigi.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:42 pmgracie, it’s really frustating at times that i just want to do it myself na lang. kaya lang gusto ko din naman sila mag-improve so magcha-tiyaga na lang ako sa pagtuturo. haaayy…
June 8th, 2009 at 1:45 pmjody, i have a yaya already, thanks to my mom who gave me hers. ngayon, sila naman ang kulang ng isang househelp.
June 8th, 2009 at 1:47 pmwow, this post made me realize that i need to cleanup our closet and the kids’ closets soon! love that menu planner!
June 22nd, 2009 at 10:50 am