yaya on double duty

Posted on January 11, 2008

Yesterday, I was a full-time yaya, with two little boys to look after. Mateo’s yaya left last Wednesday night because of some family emergency. She told us she would be back by Thursday morning but Thursday morning came and went and there was no yaya. The day looked bad already when Ramil woke up with signs of an asthma attack, he was having difficulty breathing. He took several puffs of his inhaler but by lunch time, he wasn’t feeling any better. I was really mad when the yaya didn’t arrive in the afternoon. It definitely looked like I won’t be able to attend my classes too.

So the day went by with me juggling a sick boy (Ramil), a hyper boy (Mateo), and some chores that I couldn’t put off (like cooking lunch). By late afternoon, Ramil surrendered and admitted he needed to be nebulized. So still without a yaya, I had to drive Ramil to a nearby hospital with Mateo on his sick Dada’s lap. Then I found out that I needed to fix something in school and I promised to drop by once the yaya arrives which I hoped was true. We went home, had dinner, then got a message from the yaya that she left her wallet and she’s asking if we could pick her up somewhere. So off we go again to get her. I was too tired to be angry and to reprimand her. I was just relieved that I could finally work on what I need to do. So after picking up the yaya, they dropped me off in school and I was able to finish what I needed to do.

So there goes another double duty day for me. It definitely makes me aware of how dependent we’ve become on Mateo’s yaya. She apologized when I got home and of course, I had no choice but to tell her that I hope it doesn’t happen again. Oh well, and to think we lost money yesterday because of the whole thing (teachers are on a no work, no pay during the schoolyear).