No More House Helps!

And so I and my entire family had a very wonderful re-union this Christmas/ New year festive season in my wonderful village in Imo state.

My elder sister's daughter had her wedding this last January, bringing the whole family together after a long time of not seeing one another. Though we all communicate regularly on the phone. It was really a refreshing time together catching up with old time stories.

We all decided to stay in our family house with our husbands and children. I and my husband and 3 kids occupied 2 rooms during our stay. Unknown to me, my mum was watching the conduct of my children especially my 9 years old twin girls. My girls will wake up in the morning, immediately make their beds and sweep their room including the room occupied by me and their daddy, they will go to the kitchen to wash dirty plates and any other chore they can do.

My mum was impressed with how I've raised my kids and praised me for it. My sisters also praised them and said their own kids can not do what my kids were doing because they have house helps, but they decided things will change when they get back to their different locations.

I too two years ago can not do without having a help in my house. Though my policy has ever been that my kids must make their beds and wash their plates after eating even with the help in the house. These days, we discover that most mothers neglect the training of their children in cooking and household chores because they have a house help. I personally think this is wrong. Let your kids be involved in the household chores even if you have the capacity to employ ten house helps, it is for their own good.

An incident happened 2years ago that made me to completely stop employing house helps. I was scared and shaken by that incident.

I got a new job at a time that my house help just left because she claimed she lost her mum (Their normal excuse to leave) and so I needed someone desperately that will be at home with the kids when the school bus drops them. I called an agent who sent a girl to me the next day. The first thing I noticed about the girl was that she can not look into your face. I personally feel people like that have criminal tendencies. Anyways, because I needed to resume work immediately, I asked the girl to resume. The agent sent me her form and guarantor's documentation and all that.

After a few days I began to feel very uneasy about the girl. I don't know what was actually giving me that feeling, but I didn't trust her. I caļled the agent and asked him to look for someone else, he promised he will, but 2wks passed without him getting someone else.

On a Saturday, I took my girls to the salon to make their hair and called my help after some hours to ask my son to get ready as we were running late for their bible club activities. My plans was for my son to meet me outside the house were I will pick him without me driving into the compound.

My son met me outside the house, got into the car and looked scared. I didn't notice this because I drove off as soon as he got into the car. But he said "Mummy I want to tell you something" I turned to him and said what? He said, "when I was looking for my shoes, I entered aunty Glory's room and a man was hiding behind the door and the man said, don't tell your daddy that I'm here or I will kill him and kill you! My husband was sitting in the sitting room!  

My son continued, mummy I'm telling you because he didn't say I shouldn't tell mummy!

I said, what? You just saw the man now? My son said yes. I quickly turned the car arround and raced back home. As I was getting home, thank God the agent that brought her was just coming in with a guard that he brought for us. I quickly asked the agent and my husband who was now outside to to follow me into the house. The house help when she saw me, said, mummy you no go again? I didn't respond to her but matched straight to the guest room where she stays. I opened the door and checked but there was nobody there, then I checked behind the door of her toilet and the man was sitting behind the door! I screamed and my husband and the agent rushed into the room and all were shocked!

This was happening at a time that house helps were  conniving with their boyfriends to kidnap children and demand for ransom was  trending. Infact, a friend's friend who owns a hotel in Ajah but lives in Festac lost three kids to house help kidnapping at that period.

The man walked out of his hiding place and the only thing the girl kept saying repeatedly in Pidgin English was "Na today e come oo!" I asked her to immediately pack her things and when she opened the wardrobe the man's clothes and shoes were in the wardrobe, meaning that the man has been in the house with us for days! Meanwhile this is the guest room in the main house oo not the boys quarters oo! She really has the audacity!

Just two weeks in my house and she did this. She could do this because I come home late and when I come I just cook, everybody eats and we go to bed. I don't check her room. It was after she left that my kids started telling me how she had warned them not to enter the guest room. If not for the shoes that my son was looking for, we wouldn't have discovered what she was hiding and my son had the courage to enter the room because his daddy was in the sitting room.

I thank God for delivering my family from something terrible!

Please parents we really need to be careful about the people we bring into our homes in the name of house helps!

Thank God my girls were not raped by this strange man, thank God all my kids were not kidnapped and thank God we were not murdered in our sleep and robbed! I give God the glory!

This experience made me to cancel the employment of house helps and my kids have become independent and can handle a lot at home which they probably might not be doing if there was a help at home.

For those of us who still have house helps, let's be more vigilant. I admit I was not vigilant enough.

Thank you!!!

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