Yaya: To Keep or Not To Keep

I feel so lucky to have a nanny for Via who dotes on her as much as her own mother.

My nanny is just turning 22 this year but she has more experience with infants than most of the nannies I've met.  She is the eldest of nine children in the family and she was the one who took care of most of them right after birth.  She even delivered one of her siblings.  (For lack of money for a midwife, her father was the one delivering the kids during birth. And one time, when her father wasn't around, she was the one who delivered.  She did it when she was 17 years old.)  So there was no question on her competence.

I have even observed her when she took Via for a bath.  She was handling Via so carefully but not awkwardly.  Unlike me, she took Via for a swift and thorough bath.  I have never heard Via cry when her nanny was giving her a bath.   Via cried once when I was the one giving her bath because her water was not lukewarm enough.

Anyway, since last March, I was the one who was going to pay for her salary.  And I was really dreading for that day because her salary is too steep in relative to what my husband and I are earning.  My husband suggested that we get another yaya.  And I got really mad because he couldn't understand my apprehension of trusting my baby to another stranger that I don't really know if I could trust the same way as my Via's yaya right now.

The nanny was from an agency who initially took care of my nephew.  And who transferred to my Via because of her "credentials" with infants when my nephew when my nephew grew old enough to stay with another nanny.  My mother was paying for her salary ever since she started taking care of my Via.

So yesterday, I talked to my mom that I can only afford to pay 3/4 of what she was earning right now.  And I asked her that maybe the nanny can do household chores or part-time work in my parents' house during the weekends.  So the nanny has to work for me five days a week only.  Just to cut the cost.  And my mother agreed. Yay!  I get to keep Via's nanny.

I'm so happy yesterday afternoon.  Parang nabunutan ako ng tinik.  I think it would be hard to work when you don't have any peace of mind regarding the daughter you left with a stranger at home.