Dear Perfect [preschooler] Yaya

Our favorite of them all. Ate Inday.
Puerto Princesa airport.

After going through several nanny heartbreaks and eventually moving on, I thought it might serve us well if I list down the points that I would want to discuss with first and foremost with our prospective [perfect] nanny with the hope that they may guide and help Tibs and me make better decisions and choices. I know that I'm dreaming BIG when I say I now want the next one to be perfect. But who knows, right? 

In the meantime, [while we search and search for the elusive perfect nanny] we took in somebody who we thought was good enough. But since our earlier definition of good enough was very ambiguous and relative we ended up with someone that doesn't even meet half of our expectations. I am hoping that by coming up with this list (which I will probably update from time to time) I would eventually be able to come up with a more specific and concrete definition of what good enough is in our household. Good enough might eventually be synonymous to perfect, who knows again. What's important is we have this guide. 

When I finally cross paths with you and accept you in our home, I would like to be assured -

1. That you be familiar with local vegetables and would know how to prepare, cook and eat them. We would really like for you to feed Maia healthy, nutritious food.

2. That you make the effort to earn our trust and not assume that we already put our full trust on you when we decided to hire you.

3. That you stick to the schedules that we tell you especially on FEEDING and SLEEPING.

Ate Bebing. She fattened Maia up.
She was the most patient when it came to feeding chores.

4. That you exercise (using gentle persuasion) your authority as an adult over my kid. The reason why we got somebody to watch over her is because we recognize that she is still not fully capable of making the right decisions. So when she demands to eat chocolate for lunch, you should know that chocolate is not considered as a meal.

5. That you respect our household rules.

6. That since a phone is provided, you let me know when something is not right. And when I say you let me know, I mean RIGHT away. 


7. That when you’re with my kid, you pay full attention to her. We don’t prohibit the use of phones, but even us are not with our phones 24/7. When we’re at work, we focus on our work.


8. Violence is banned in our household. And that includes violence against animals, insects and every living thing you see within the parameters of our household. Yes. I do not encourage you killing a helpless spider in front of my kid. That is beyond horrible.


9. Profanity is prohibited in our household. And when I say prohibited TALAGANG BAWAL PO. So when I catch you, please expect an earful from me. (the kid is really like a sponge you know.)


10. We encourage you to be observant. Our ways and norms can be easily learned, if you just observe. We don’t shout. We don’t hit. And we demand you do the same whenever you’re around her.

Ate Belen. She was Maia's best friend.
But she was really loud so I avoided conversing with her because I'd always get irritated.

That is all I could come up for now. But I am sure this list will grow. For now I just really wanted to write these thoughts down before I forget about them again.