Getting Closer....!

Received our helper's visa approval in the post yesterday. Went to the immigration offices to collect it this morning. Took it to Thai Consulate for processing. Going back to Thai Consulate to pick up "Brown Sealed Envelope" tomorrow morning. Will FedEx to helper, to arrive Friday. Hopefully she can be here next week! The process has seemed interminable.

I know some people will think it's all a bit whinge-y to complain that one doesn't have a helper, but it is really limiting to not have one in HK.

Babysitters are non-existent outside either the babysitting agencies or helpers who have a night off and want to make a couple extra dollars. Agencies charge astronomical prices (when we've used them, it adds immensely to the cost of our night out - quadruple the cost of a movie with popcorn, and more than double the cost of an average meal) and helpers with a night off are few and far between. We have used the helper of a couple of friends of ours a few times, but it is only when they are out for the night, so our social life either revolves around our friends', or we pay an outlandish premium to go out for a night.

That's just to get me out of the house once in a while. Running errands revolved around the kids' school times, and now that there is this self-imposed quarantine of schoolchildren in HK I am lucky to be able to run one errand in a day. That is usually to buy food. James had to stay home with the kids this morning in order for me to trek around town, getting the helper visa sorted.

And disciplining one child ends up punishing the other and not really disciplining the first one - for example when Kate was acting like a hormonal teenager the other day, I told her she was not allowed to go down to the play area and use her bicycle. But then that meant poor Charlie couldn't go either, since I had to stay at home with Kate. So I had to think of something else fun to do at home, which then negated the punishment for Kate. I actually think there will be fewer tantrums and bad behaviour once we get a helper and having to stay at home actually means something, as the other child will then be allowed to go out and play with their bike/scooter/see their friends.