10035745H, Soh Kai Ruo

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Seeing children running towards their maids when they are crying?

This is what’s happening around us nowadays. Many maids taking care of the children day and night and not their parents. At restaurants you see the maid feeding the child and taking care of the child when he cries. Not only do the maids take care of the child, she has to do the housework and cook at home as well just like a housewife. Is this the right thing to do? Where has the mother’s love gone too? Maybe mothers are not to blame because nowadays both parents may have to work to support and give a good life to the family. Does the child being ignorant to their parents effects the parents too?

We ask Miss Chua her opinions on this.

Miss Chua : I think kids who are being taken care of their maids, are being prone to be too attached to their maid. When their parents want to show their love to them, they are not very receptive because they are too attached to the maid. And I have actually experience this in my family because my cousin’s boy is about 2 years old, is very emotionally attach to the maid, because his parents needs to work in the morning, so he is usually taken care by the maid. He will cry when the mother tries to carry him, but when the maid carries him he would not cry anymore. I think it is very sad, and I can tell my cousin is very sad and she is trying to change what is happening. I feel that parent should know how to mange their time between work a family. Especially if they have a maid, they should learn how to spend more time with the children, so that they will understand whom their parents really are and would not be to emotionally attached to the maid.


Not only do the parents feel the pain of the child not acknowledging them but also outsiders who look into their lives. Is it possible that the child may not be attached to the maid even though they are with them everyday and taking care of them because both the parents are working?

Mr Soh, a working dad gives his opinion on this situation.

Mr Soh: My opinion is only natural that the kid would be close to the maid probably than the working parents. If the maid treats them in the way better than the parents treat them. In children it is natural that they are dependent, they need love and security, and guidance. So it is inevitable.

A child gets influenced easily by their surroundings, and if their parents are not around them often they would get influence. Therefore instead of thinking of their parents as the one that should be close too, they would look for the next best thing. In the child’s point of view the child might think that the parents are not interested in them but only at their career.

Here we have Mr Andin elaborating more.

Mr Andin: For me I think the child will definitely have a thinking that their parents only care about their career and on their off days some of them just rest at home doing nothing, I think they should spend more time with their children, to prevent them from having those thoughts.

Not only does this affects the child but the maid as well. Domestic helpers are human beings too. It does not mean that since they are being paid they would suddenly have super human powers. Taking care of the child, doing housework, cooking for the family, is not as easy as it sounds. Imagine doing all this for 83 cents per hour. Adding on to that, they would not be able to see their families and their love ones for many many years. How fair is that? Employers should give HUMAN empathy to their maids, as we are all humans. Yes we pay them to work for us, or rather to help us, not to do things that we do not want to do or to treat them like rubbish.