Another one leaves again...

Why is it we are so unlucky with domestic helpers?

Eversince we moved to this house a year and a month ago, we seem to be so unlucky with them. Four of our maids have stolen from us.

DH1: Stole a pair of earrings that my only godmother gave to me from my closet. When my dad confronted her early the next day, she said it was just there. My dad made her prove that it was there. She came out with my pair of earrings nestled in a wad of tissue in one of my jewelry boxes, which I was so sure I checked again the night before, right before I slept. There was no tissue there. She said it was nakakalat (scattered) in my closet and so she kept it for safekeeping. Chhhyeeah, right!

DH2: Stole my brothers' Christmas money. After taking home gifts from my grandma's house, my mom later realized that the boys' Christmas money from our grandparents were missing. She said she left it in the bag of opened gifts (for the life of me, I do not understand why she left it there when she could have placed it in her purse instead!). She asked the maids and one said that she kept it. She gave the wad of cash and said she kept it because she didn't know whose money it was and in case someone asked, she'll give it back. My parents questioned why it wasn't in the envelope. She claims she burned the envelope along with the other gift wrappers my dad asked to burn. Ah! But each envelope had a name stating who the money belonged to. Clearly, she knew the money belonged to the kids. She didn't return it back right away. She claims she would return it if someone looked for it. So does that mean that if nobody looked for it or asked for it, she wouldn't return it? DUH!

DH3: When she lost her cellphone, Cami was kind enough to lend her her spare cellphone. Eventually, she got a new one and didn't return the cellphone right away. One day, another maid overheard her talking, saying that she'll pretend that the cellphone got snatched that's why she couldn't return it. True enough, when she got back from her day off, she said her story. Upon further investigation, the truth was uncovered. She was fired. We were having problems with her anyway.

DH4: Before leaving for Boracay, Cami decided to stash the cash she needed to buy her school books and uniform inside a hard bound Harry Potter book, which she kept on her bed. She didnt have any place to hide it except her closet. Now hiding it in the closet is not a good idea because the only helper left at home is our laundrywoman, who would definitely have access to our closets. But I guess one day while my sister was away, she went through the discarded clothes on my sister's bed, thinking it was laundry and knocked off the book and found the envelope where she hid the money. She took half of the amount. Upon further investigation by me and my dad, we found out that she really didn't go home to her home town last Monday to pawn back her ring, like she told me. Instead, she went out shopping in Cubao! We found out from one of our helpers who had to rush home to the province because of an emergency. Apparently, she still kept in touch with our other helpers and that's how we found out she was in Cubao. We also found out that whenever she asked for extra money to buy more soap, she'd pocket the change and throw the receipt.

What I noticed is that all of them had the responsibility of cooking. DH1 and 2 were cooks. DH3 and 4 were originally hired for another task but had to take over the cooking whenever our cooks left simply because they knew how to cook. Before my family left for Boracay last week, one maid rushed to the province. Our cook wanted to leave because she was homesick (she was new and I think she got scared when my dad got mad at her). The new yaya went with my family to Boracay so it was the laundrywoman, who became our cook for a few days, that was left with us. Maybe our stove is cursed!

Aside from that, maids just come and go. Somehow, they have to leave because tragedy has struck their family. Or they have fights amongst themselves because of attitude problems. Sometimes I think that they're just saying that because maybe they find my mom too demanding. Or they feel that my mom is always getting mad at them because they didn't follow her instructions correctly. Miscommunication plays a big factor too considering that my mom's tagalog is not as fluent as yours and mine, while the maids only understand either the visayan dialect or tagalog, very little english.

It's just so sad that when your household helpers steal from you, not because they stole but because you trusted them with your home. After paying for their medicines when they get sick, or let them loan to buy toiletries, letting them eat the same food you eat on the table, they betray you. I would say my parents are good "bosses" compared to others.

Eversince, we're constantly replacing household helpers so much so that I can't keep track anymore. I can't remember who was who or who did what. We never even had this problem when we were young. Our maids stayed with us for such a long time before they moved on to get married or they had to go home to be with their family. I envy those families who've had their helpers since the kids were still small and they are no longer helpers but part of the family.

I can't help but wonder. Is this all too much of a coincidence? An act of chance? Or is all the bad luck brought about by our breaking of some feng shui no- no?