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Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

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sasettershank
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Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by sasettershank » Tue, 05 Apr 2011 6:24 pm

Hi we are looking to move to Singapore in the next couple of months. We have 4 children and only one of school age. I will be working 3 days per week and we need a nanny, I am happy to have a live in but am concerned around how qualified these live in nannies are to care for small children. Am I putting my most precious ones in safe hands?

Any advise on reputable agencies or recommendations and experience around this would be greatly appreciated.

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ecureilx
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Re: Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by ecureilx » Tue, 05 Apr 2011 9:09 pm

sasettershank wrote:Hi we are looking to move to Singapore in the next couple of months. We have 4 children and only one of school age. I will be working 3 days per week and we need a nanny, I am happy to have a live in but am concerned around how qualified these live in nannies are to care for small children. Am I putting my most precious ones in safe hands?

Any advise on reputable agencies or recommendations and experience around this would be greatly appreciated.
As per Singapore Law, only LIVE IN IS LEGAL. unless the nanny is a PR/Local, or engaged by a maid service company, whereby the price goes through the roof.

As for comments, I think there are enough written about nannies, in this site (or DH, or Maid, or Personal asistant, or .. help)

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gravida
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Post by gravida » Wed, 06 Apr 2011 1:08 pm

to find a qualified nanny is very difficult in Singapore.
Domestic helpers (aka live in maids) are not really qualified. They go through a regular training in their respective agencies and it is mainly basic cleaning, cooking and maybe very basic child-related skills like bathing, nappy changing etc. Usually they are relatively young girls or a little older women (mothers, who had to leave their kids at home) with basic or almost no education.
As for the live out nanny - first of all it is very hard to find one. I have contacted all agencies that I could google out and each of them acts out as if they really do not care, if they will make any business. Half of them did not reply to my initial email. That was first selection. The second half either did not reply to my following emails (including situation when I was already going to hire them and was just asking about details) or were disappointing otherwise (i. e., not really able to fulfill their promises or fussing about working hours etc.).
We finally got one live out nanny, but it was through the word of mouth. I guess that's the best way to find one.
Second of all - they are also not really qualified, at least most of them. Most likely there are some really well trained child minders here, but I did not meet one during my 3.5 months search. They are usually experienced though. They have their own children (already old enough, so they can work*) and couple of years of experience working as a babysitter/nanny.

I think your situation is more complicated because you have at least three children the nanny will have to look after. Or maybe the nannies?


Cost wise: live in maid with all the expenses is around $1300-1500 per month (as far as I know, I do not have one, I may be wrong), live out charges are $12-20 per hour plus you may expect additional costs like; one time agency fee (between $200-500), taxi/transportation charges, higher rate for early and late hours, food fee (or you will have to cook for the nanny). I even encountered situation where I was asked to pay extra $$ for a nanny of certain nationality...

* the mothers/nannies, not the children ;)

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ecureilx
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Post by ecureilx » Wed, 06 Apr 2011 1:42 pm

gravida wrote: Cost wise: live in maid with all the expenses is around $1300-1500 per month (as far as I know, I do not have one, I may be wrong), live out charges are $12-20 per hour plus you may expect additional costs like; one time agency fee (between $200-500), taxi/transportation charges, higher rate for early and late hours, food fee (or you will have to cook for the nanny). I even encountered situation where I was asked to pay extra $$ for a nanny of certain nationality...

* the mothers/nannies, not the children ;)
Cost: S$ 450/- for filipino maid / Indonesian Maid

Levy was / is S$ 300/- and lesser if you can qualify for some exemption ..

Add in another S$ 500 as expense for the maid- food, toiletries .. etc.

Though, some well healed people pay more than twice that amount for salary + allowances .. :D :D

And anybody who budgets less than S$ 1,200 for maid, in my eyes, doesn't deserve to have one, and I don't condone those who budget, for meals for maid, at 5$ a day ... in my opinion, 3 fair and square meals, apart from the time when the employer buys for the maid, should be atleast 10$, so a monthly meal allowance of atleast 300, and toiletries/medical etc, is fair ..

I also get peeved at those, who frown on maids who eat rice, unlike sticking to cheaper noodles, considering Indonesians, Filipinos and Sri Lankan/Myanmar people eat a lot of rice ..

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k1w1
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Re: Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by k1w1 » Sat, 09 Apr 2011 6:24 pm

sasettershank wrote:Hi we are looking to move to Singapore in the next couple of months. We have 4 children and only one of school age. I will be working 3 days per week and we need a nanny, I am happy to have a live in but am concerned around how qualified these live in nannies are to care for small children. Am I putting my most precious ones in safe hands?

Any advise on reputable agencies or recommendations and experience around this would be greatly appreciated.
I found two excellent helpers myself on "maidlibrary" and "netmaid" (both are websites). You can put in search parameters and then it will bring up maids who fit your needs, as well as put you in touch with agents.

I know lots of people who have used 121 personnel services to hire maids and they seem to be ok. (Agents are fairly unscrupulous though, so if they are ok, I suspect it would be relatively speaking...)

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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Sat, 09 Apr 2011 6:37 pm

Wish I had have had these suggestions when I was in SG last time.

And I hope the search function brings them up when we get back in '13 :)

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ecureilx
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Re: Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by ecureilx » Sat, 09 Apr 2011 9:53 pm

k1w1 wrote: I know lots of people who have used 121 personnel services to hire maids and they seem to be ok. (Agents are fairly unscrupulous though, so if they are ok, I suspect it would be relatively speaking...)
Catch no ball, ... never mind ..

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JR8
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Re: Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by JR8 » Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:08 pm

ecureilx wrote:
k1w1 wrote: I know lots of people who have used 121 personnel services to hire maids and they seem to be ok. (Agents are fairly unscrupulous though, so if they are ok, I suspect it would be relatively speaking...)
Catch no ball, ... never mind ..
And again in English?

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ecureilx
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Re: Nanny for 4 children - live in or out

Post by ecureilx » Sun, 10 Apr 2011 12:00 am

JR8 wrote:And again in English?
:D :D me was a bit sleepy and was trying to comprehend the previous post .. no worries : 8-) 8-)

A touch of Scotch fixed it :)

sisisoh
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Post by sisisoh » Mon, 11 Apr 2011 6:05 pm

Are you looking for live-out nanny just the 3 days a week that you are working? Or mondays-sundays?

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JR8
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Post by JR8 » Mon, 11 Apr 2011 6:08 pm

Here we go.... tick-tock

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