Ramadhan Kareem ( hari pertama n ke2)
3 years ago
Saturday 16 June 2007
Mother's Language
My sister in-law was telling me about her 18 months old granddaughter who had learned to talk in mix language of english & bahasa Indonesia. It's not surprising, she has picked up the language from the maid. Her "No!" is expressed as " tak bisa " and her expression of " Look! there's a cow near the pond" is " Lihat itu, ada sapi ditepi kali!" So I said to my sister in-law, "This is clearly not the case of the child pickingup the bahasa ibunda but she has picked up bahasa 'bibiknda'" I do worry in future our children may grow not with our values but the values of the maids. How many hours do you have with your child as compared to the maid who is almost 24 hours with your child. Do the infant know which one is her mother?
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this is a critical issue, i do agree here about how many times do our children spend their time with the maid and we should as much as we can allocate time for our children.
ReplyDeletei took maid when i already have 4 children that is when my eldest started her Year 1 in 2005 and so far, I never let them to sleep with their bibik, I am still the Cook of the House and am still wake up at 5am to prepare the family's breakfast and the children's bekal.
In terms of bahasa, it is well known children are like sponge, the absorb quickly and precisely...i think it is a pity for those who let their bibik supplant their role as parents; my kids sometimes do jokingly mimicking their bibik's lingo eg "mau apa dong", or "nggak tau sih" i think somehow it's cute. :D
p/s: i'd like to attend the talk at al-ameen if the date and time is convenience - will give them a call.
-ondeonde-
I consider myself quite an expert on maids. I have had countless number of maids since I got married. Some were like jewels to me, some I could still remember their faces, some I could not remember or would not like to be reminded of. During all those years of raising my children, I did not totally left my kids with the maids. The children slept in my room until the third baby came along. There was an exception of Alan, the eighth child. I was not well after his birth, so he was left to the maid for many months. The result of that was not good.
ReplyDeleteso far, i only have 2 maids including the current one. The first one was 40 years old and I was clueless at first how to handle maid but she was very good with housechores since she had 2 previous employees but after a year she got a letter asking her to go home to attend her child. She didn't come back.
ReplyDeleteWe had a break for 8 months without a maid; it was tough and i hadn't time to look for the children's homework. So, we took in a new maid last january; a fresh, younger maid - 27yo. So far, she's okay though she didn't know how to cook much. Alhamdulillah so far she's an obedient person.
-onde-