High Blood Pressure Week

Actually, I didn't want to b*tch about my 1st CL but I feel that I should warn people also lah. This is based on my personal experience.

I got my 1st CL through a confinement agency - Pei Ling (their formal business name is Daveleen). It was a desparate effort on my side as by the time I wanted to book a CL, all of the recommended names that I got from various people, have all been pre-booked. Moreover I heard that July/August was a popular month. So no choice lor. I had thought that at least the agency would maintain some level of standard hence it won't be so bad.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

You know how you don't get a good feeling when you meet someone for the first time? I had this when I picked her up from the agency. Call it gut feeling, call it intuition. Firstly, she looked so young (she's only 38yrs old) and then her face expression was close to one belonging to a corpse. Never mind, I thought, as long as she's good at handling the baby and good at cooking.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

Firstly, you can tell that she is not experienced in handling the baby. During bath times, she literally dumped the whole baby's body into the water. Of course the baby cried to no end. Then when I asked her why she wanted to be a CL, she said that she loved babies. What BS! She barely speaks or molly-cuddle the baby. She treated the baby like a commodity, doing about her tasks like a robot. Zero compassion. Obviously a mercenary.

Then there was one time when the plaster strips from the disposable diaper got stuck to the baby's skin because she forgot to paste them back when changing the diapers. My poor baby cried out in so much pain when she removed it!

Let's not even talk about her cooking - she herself confessed that she doesn't know how to cook. She doesn't even need to cook in her own home as her husband is a chef.

In that one week, my blood pressure literally shot up. Luckily I had some experience in handling an infant. It ended up with me teaching her how to go about doing things. The tipping point was when I saw her eating some medicine. Turned out that she was having a fever and sore throat! Immediately I called the agency up and asked for a replacement. They then told me that it would take up to a week because it's "peak" period then. Unfortunately I had to pay the full RM2,880 up-front so I couldn't ask for a refund. I converted the service to a food delivery package instead. I was totally fed-up with them by then.

Then the food delivery is another cerita. The entire package for 28-days of lunch & dinner costs close to RM2,000. Delivery charges are separate - RM7 per day (daylight robbery!). This comes up to RM78 per day. You would expect some pretty great stuff, right?

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

A typical lunch comprisez of beans/cauliflower (all-time favourite with the agency, it seems) and a tasteless meat. Then dinner, which mind you is delivered together with lunch, is some taufu, another piece of tasteless meat and a soup. Oops, sorry it doesn't even qualify as soup since the it is so diluted. Rice I have to cook myself.

After the CL left, my trusted Indon maid told me that the CL took our chocolates and ate them without our knowledge. Not like I would have said No, but it would be polite to ask. Plus the CL also told my maid that Malaysians treat Indon maids as "dogs". GEEZZ!!!! What kind of a person would say that???!! It just shows you what kind of a person she is. Really, if I see her around (afterall, she is from Puchong), I would give her a big piece of my mind.

After sharing my experiences with a couple of other people, I found out that I am not the only disgruntled one. Apparently, this agency already has a bad reputation. If only I knew earlier, I could have avoided suffering for one week.