Work Allocation Between 2 Helpers?

Hello. I am newly relocating to Hong Kong and find this forum extremely helpful.


I am thinking of hiring 2 domestic helpers. I have a 5 year old daughter and a 4 month old son.


My daughter will need to be taken to/from her school bus. She gets back from school around 1pm. My son is still very young so he will need 24/7 care.


I often work late hours and my husband is working in Europe until next year so it is just me and the kids for now.


From my experience of taking care of my infant son during maternity leave, there was little time to do anything else (maybe it was due to my inadequate domestic skills...).


Should I hire 1 helper to take care of my daughter, and 1 helper for my son, as a baby nurse? Then should my daughter's nanny focus on the housework?


Would this cause any discord between the two helpers? What is the usual arrangement? Please advise on how to divide work between 2 workers in a situation like this.


I have no previous experience hiring help in Hong Kong so your advice would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you!

I don't think one for each child is a good idea. I think it would be better to have one helper take care of the kids, and the other do the housework. This would also somewhat mitigate any jealousy tendencies. The 5 year old can help with the child as appropriate.


You could rotate. One week kids, one week housework. That would ensure they stay on their toes.


It somewhat depends on the helpers. If one loves kids and the other not so much, the choice is clear.


"Would this cause any discord between the two helpers?"


That can happen anyway. Make sure everyone is on the same page. Have meetings (doesn't need to be a formal thing) and talk often amongst each other.



"What is the usual arrangement? "


I think that really depends on the employer.



"My daughter will need to be taken to/from her school bus. She gets back from school around 1pm. My son is still very young so he will need 24/7 care."


While your taken is being taken to/from the school bus, the other can take your son for a few minutes. Or he can be brought.

agree with axptguy - i have two helpers and we both work full time - so one helper looks after out 2 kids (with the other one helping her out with things like bath, if i am not home in time, feeding them etc). The first helper cooks for the kids and takes them to their Montessouri playgroup.


Second helper - does all the cleaning, ironing, washing, washing the car once a week etc. This does leave her time to help out with kids too - for example when they take the kids to the playground in our building - they both would go with the kids. Ditto the beach.


We pay one a bit more as she is more experience and looking after kids is harder than cleaning the house really.


Important thing about hiring 2 helpers - hire family rather than 2 strangers, i.e. sisters, mother and daughter etc - otherwise they will be at each others throats about who is doing what and you dont need this.


PM me if you need to ask anything else!

"Important thing about hiring 2 helpers - hire family rather than 2 strangers, i.e. sisters, mother and daughter etc - otherwise they will be at each others throats about who is doing what and you dont need this."


This can happen anyway. ;) I've seen it. But I agree that family is a good idea if you can swing it, and will decrease the chances of discord.

huh? F355 this is not a very funny joke, esp telling it to someone who has not lived here and does not know how much you are supposed to pay, etc.


yes, agree, family still might fight but at least I tell mine not to bring it to me and sort it out between themselves... most times they do..

Well F355, so you think it's Ok to pay below the legal minimum wage, just what do

you pay your helpers?

But I guess if you pay so much for glasses as quoted on Living in Hk thread HK$6,973.50 than you must be saving money fom somewhere.