Trust BY Annabelle Lu s10032743c

Here's my audio:
Trust by Annabelle Lu

Script:

Hi, this is Annabelle. For my radio story, I’m going to follow up on my group’s topic about trusting your domestic helper. Ever since my older siblings were born, my parents have hired maids to assist in taking care of the housework and watching over my siblings while they were at work. So naturally when I was born, I always had someone around to take care of me. Till now I’ve never been without a maid in the house. Over the years, we’ve had several changes, usually after each of them finishes their contract.

I have heard stories about other domestic helpers who steal from their employers, abused their employer’s children, sneak out during the day to go out with their friends, and stories about domestic helpers that just don’t do any housework if their employers are not in. My family, however, has never had any major problems with our domestic helpers. They’re always nice to us and do whatever they can to keep the house clean and do their chores. Wait! Come to think of it, we did have an incident way before I was born. My dad told me the story about one of our maids going out during the day when no one was at home. He came home to an empty house and caught her outside. She told my dad that it was the only time and she never done it before. Like it so happens that the very day she decided to go out, my dad caught her.

So anyways, here’s an interview with one of my friends, who currently has a domestic helper whom she’s not very happy with. Here’s her story:

1. How do you find your maid in general?
Erm… My maid is quite nice to my brother and she’s okay to me but she can be very irresponsible and er she doesn’t really do her work properly. Ya.

2. Do you trust your maid?
Erm… Sometimes la because like erm… she ratted on me before but usually she doesn’t and she helps me sneak in sometimes. Haha. Erm sometimes she lies to my parents about where she goes. And erm she goes out and meets her friends quite often and… and I dunno what she does. She goes clubbing at Orchard Towers, and and my parents don’t really know about that. And she has a boyfriend and stuff.
Erm… when she first started working for us, she started stealing our money and stuff but I don’t think she does it so much now –a days.

3. Why do you think she behaves that way?
I think she’s actually quite childish and… she’s as in… she’s like just a kid at heart and she just like wants to have fun and she’s as in she doesn’t realize that, that when she lies to my parents and they when they find out she actually gets into more trouble, than if she just tells them the truth.

4. Are your parents aware of her actions?
Ya. She told my parents that she has a boyfriend and that erm… sometimes she tells them where she goes but not all the time. And sometimes she lies to my parents like that she’s going to buy something from like, 7-eleven but she goes to meet her boyfriend and she takes like 2-hours to buy something from 7-eleven, so it’s really stupid.

5. Why haven’t they done anything? Like take any measures to ensure that she doesn’t do all that?
Erm… I don’t think my parents trust her a lot, but erm… so they keep having to reprimand her and scold her but I think that erm… like changing maid will be too troublesome so their just letting her finish her contract and erm… because if we get a new maid it’s very hard to erm… train them and everything and my brother’s very used to her and she’s quite good at playing with my brother because she’s very playful herself.

Thanks, Nicole.

And here’s another interview with my neighbour, Madam Lim, who has trusted her different maids to care for her family over the years as none of them has ever done any major misdoings.

6. How do you find your maid in general?
Er… I find my maid quite good. She has been with me for 8 years and er… so far I do not have any problem with her.

7. Do you trust your maid?
Er, yes. I do trust my maid generally and a she has proven herself and able to gain my trust.

8. When she’s alone at home, how can you trust that she will not take anything of yours?
Er, so far erm… I have not lost anything and I trust that she has not been taking anything er, of mine. Er, so, I think that er, also depend on us, er, keep all our valuables and not to let them be around and also must monitor er… the things that we have.

9. If you find out that she has been stealing or going out without permission, what would you do?
Well, if I find out that my maid has been stealing or going out without permission then I would confront her. Ers… Well, going out with-without permission, I think erm… we’ll counsel her and tell her not to do that but if he has- she has been caught stealing then I will not accept that behaviour and I will er… send her back to a… Philippines.

10. Have you ever had any bad past experiences with any of your maids?
Erm, I once had a maid that er, made use of the phone to make er… international call. And the amount came up to be $3000. So er… that was er… really surprise, er and er, at the end we had to send her back to er, Philippines.

Thank you Madam Lim.

So I guess trust is very important when you let a stranger into your house to live with you for a few years. There will be times when she’s alone at home, and she is free to roam around the house and do anything she wants. Without installing any twenty-four hour surveillance to record her every move, we just have to hope that she doesn’t betray our trust.

Thank you for listening. Bye!