Hey good people,
Thank God it's
Friday! What's more this is the Friday leading up to Valentine and for those of
us with boos (lol), we are so getting ready to be spoilt by our boos (I pray o).
Well today's post isn't about the 'booed' and the 'booless'. Every Friday on
here, I will be serving you hilarious, inspiring and enlightening tales
about nannies and so I have aptly titled it as the #NannySeries.
This is a series I hope to
share my numerous encounters about nannies, maids, house girls or house
governors as the case maybe and those of others I know. I will start first with the
ones I have had to employ in my eight years since becoming a mother.
Believe me when I say I have
had ALL SORTS of encounters. Some good, some not so good, some damn hilarious I
actually burst out laughing when I think of them though I didn't find them
funny then. I had one that was well, kinda spiritually ill suited. I'm sure
mothers world over, with my Naija mummies not been an exception will have quite
a story to tell.
We all need a good support
system no doubt. No need to form super woman. You can only claim the status of
a super woman when you learn well the art of organisation, delegation and
prioritisation but this will make me digress from the crux of these series.
I'll start off today's
#NannySeries with this story of a nanny I employed when I was pregnant with my
last (dear hubs note I said last) baby some 5 years ago. I was approaching my
second trimester and had 2 other children under age 3! Does this remind you of
Wande Coal's Bumper to Bumper hit song? Hehehehe. Add to this my very tasking
banking job at the time. I needed a nanny desperately if I didn't want to lose
my mind, baby and job. So a good friend of mine spoke to her weekend laundry
woman asking her if she'll be interested in working for me. Imagine my joy when
the woman accepted and what's more she was a middle aged mother of 3 so at
least I was guaranteed my children will be well taken care of. I employed her
almost immediately. She was to work for me Mondays to Fridays while she did my
friend's laundry during the weekends.
It wasn't such a bad
arrangement and for the first 2months I coped just fine. I was soon to realise
the foolishness in my hasty decision when as I approached the 3rd trimester my
strength literally started to fail me. Getting up in the mornings to bathe the
children and get them ready for school was becoming a horrendous chore for me.
Another foolish act of desperation. I should have just gotten a live in nanny
and not this off-premise arrangement.
Anyways one day I decided I
couldn't continue this way anymore and so begged this my friend (again) if she
could let me have the nanny fully. She accepted being the kind hearted friend
that she is. The next line of action was now to let the woman know that I'll
like for her to work for me fully (fully meaning Mondays to Saturdays) and I'll
in return give her a lil extra.
Imagine my shock when this
woman turned down my offer. I was almost in tears.
''Ha Iya Tolu (not real
name)! Even with my condition and you are a woman like me?''
''Ewo e ma binu but ko le
work. Ore yin nikan ko ni mo maa n ba f'oso ni weekends'' (Look it cannot work,
your friend is not the only one I do her laundry weekends).
''Ok I'll add something more.
It's just for a few more months till I put to bed'', I said.
How desperate I must have
sounded. Thinking this will make her shift ground for where? She did not budge
one bit. At this point my cousin who came visiting for the weekend even joined
me in begging this my executive house governor using my pregnant state to whip
up sentiments. Nothing. Iya Tolu stood her ground firmly. At this point I was
of course pissed off and told her not to bother thinking at the back of my mind
that I would get rid of her when the month ends. She left to continue with her
house chores or so I thought.
An hour later my cousin came
to ask me where I had put the remaining sardine I opened the night before as
she couldn't find it in the fridge. She had wanted to make me sardine sauce to
eat with my yam that morning.
''Where else can it be when
it's not like rats now enter the fridge?'', I said.
''I'm telling you it's not
there I've checked the whole fridge"
"Iya Tolu! Iya Tolu!!
"Ma?"
" What happened to the
sardine I put in the fridge?"
" Oh mo ti fi je isu ni
ma", (Oh that's what I ate with my yam ma), she said.
"You did what?! What
sort of nonsense is that? So if we had eggs at home you would have fried that
as well?"
Her response totally threw me
off balance.
''Ha no o. Mi o kin je eyin
nitori age mi" (No I don't eat eggs because of my age).
Needless to say that Iya Tolu
was summarily dismissed thereafter. The effrontery!
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