Unlike most years, this year was spectacularly different because yaya has joined the family. On the self development front, this year was very stressful for me, never had so much stress continuously day after day, mainly because the Hubby didn't want a kid, so I have to do everything that is interfering with his life. I am opposite from the norm, stress makes me weaker, not stronger. So I remove sources of stress, rather than face it because I am very destructive.
I was very grateful to have supportive bosses and colleagues who covered my duties during my maternity leave, and also allowed me to take 2 days of leave weekly for 2 months as I slowly adjust back to working life. They also had to put up with my milking schedules at work and days where I had to take leave when yaya was sick.
Some of you know that I get incessant nags from the hubby whenever I don't reach home by 7 pm and the bus 145 which I take from orpit to Harbourfront mrt was always crowded and infrequent. I still had to fetch yaya to and fro the childcare daily. As stress is always caused by not knowing what to do, I was frequently stressed by my homebound travel route. Car option is beyond reach.
The Hubby also nags at me to change my boss, easier said than done, because of my workload. I was held back at work a few times but gradually got more frequent, and to add on the self depreciating factor that my boss said I wasn't doing much work, and when I confronted her statement, she said I had no milestones delivered, it became the last straw that erupted the volcano building up inside me.
I changed my job despite many ppl advising me against citing the need to often take leave to take care of yaya and also stress from new work environments. But I remove stress factors, I don't work well with stress, so changing my job meant I had to be very selective with the job scope, location, boss, pay, ... I feel very fortunate to bump into a job with similar job scope, hence gentle learning curve, near mrt, so from my door step to my desk takes 40 min, pay higher so Hubby accepted my job more, workload slightly lesser, boss wise, so far so good lol.
Another change I decided to make was to change childcare next year when yaya turns 18 months from cherie hearts to Mindchamps. After a visit to the school, I was sold because all the kids were so alert, and they have gym, music, baking classes included in the programme. It's $1.4k/month after gov subsidy, but I still decided to go ahead with it because yaya had been falling sick very often recently. We will start her in the new school in June. When I ask ppl about Mindchamps, they tell me it's good but very atas, only for rich ppl, but I believe, 1 cent 1 good, money can always earn back, but yaya's health cannot.
I am very demanding when I want to, so I asked the childcare teacher what can be done to prevent yaya from falling sick so often, she told me that all other children are ok. Immediately I failed her, but I gave my demands, to wash her hands every hour, wash the toys before giving to her, for at least 2 weeks to give her time to rebuild her immunity.
So money is still important, this year has been a year with high spending. Medical bills for yaya is easily around 5k. Saving on the childcare would just translate to more medical bills and more downtime at work which also translates to $$. Of course there is still the stress option to hire a maid but I am sure it will cause me stress because hubby, my parents and in-laws will definitely tell me to tell the maid to do this and that and complain to me when things are not done to their satisfaction.
In terms of objectives for next year, I will continue to work hard at keeping all of us free from sickness.
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