Not putting a money/benefit tag to everything

I don't know about you but I think the typical urban dweller likes to put a tag to things.

We assess the benefits and the price involved and then decide if it is all worthwhile.

We can't help it; that seems the only way to make sure our kind innocent hearts do not get exploited.

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I was doing the dishes this morning.

Did you shriek when I said that? Did you think deep down inside that I am actually an imported Filipino maid?

Did you feel that that is NOT my responsibility and I shouldn't be doing it?

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Well, if this is comforting, I volunteered to do it. They didn't ask me to.

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But as I was doing that, I did have some reflections about the way life is now.

As Alice (in case I forgot to introduce her to you earlier, she is the previous Au Pair. Her term has ended and she is just staying back to help me learn the ropes) put it, many of the Au Pairs will shrink their responsibility and demand that they should solely be in charge of the kid (s).

Because they are paid only to do that!

Yes, that is true. I wouldn't deny that.

Then perhaps, let me ask you this:

Consider if you were to go on vacation with the family and they ask you to pay for *every* single cent your accomodation/food cost. (Or maybe they ask that you babysit the house while they travel...)

Consider if the family says "You are only entitled to $500 worth of supplies ranging from food to drink to utilities to what-have-you-not".

Consider if the family requests that you pump up the petrol (oops, I think they use the term 'gas') the exact amount you have used when you use the car.

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This entry is a little bit paradoxical.

I am saying that Au Pairs should learn not to place a benefit tag to everything. But in order to do that, you have to first realize the tag of everything.

Alice was telling me that the rematch rate is pretty high.

For the benefit of those who have no idea what I am talking about, a rematch happens when after the first month, the Au Pair AND the family decides that they have had enough of each other and they want to bust each other out.

You have three attempts, following which, the host family gets kicked out of the program and the Au Pair gets sent home.

It is not pretty.

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So if you ask me, why do I not bother that I am doing what a Filipino maid does?

The truth is, I am not in Singapore.

Back home, I didn't even need to make my bed. Back home, my table is as tidy as a pig sty (you get what I mean) and I don't need to do the dishes at all. Back home, who cares about whether the things are neat or not. As long as I know where they are placed, everything goes.

But I am not at home literally now.

I am at home with a host family, with two young girls to whom I have to play role model to.

I am at home to experience the fair share of responsibilities EVERY ONE should be doing as part of a family.

And really, I do realize how much I have taken many things for granted.

That aside, I think it is just about changing a perspective.

It is the same with many things in life. Maybe things may turn out better or more manageable once we learn to change the way we look at things.

Which is why I don't mind helping to do some dishes, or other auxiliary chores that are not ridiculously out of my range of work.

I know the paradox. But I will learn.