They say you only notice things when you have a vested interest in them.  Such was the case with me that when I first got pregnant, I slowly became aware of the number of people around me who were pregnant.  Then when Gavin was born, I started to realise that there were a lot more babies in shopping malls as if there was a sudden boom of babies being born.  I’m sure it wasn’t a sudden boom but more likely that I just hadn’t noticed before.

The other thing I noticed was that some parents had maids who carried the baby stuff and looked after the baby and I remembered thinking to myself that when Gavin was born, I would be the one to look after him and that I would not pan him off to my maid to care for.  The primary reason I chose to be a stay-at-home-Mum was because I couldn’t bear the thought of having my son be closer to the maid rather than to me because he hardly saw me. 

Ironically, despite the fact that I am Gavin’s primary caregiver, followed by my in laws and the hubby, Gavin still seems to prefer the maid to all of us.  Both the hubby and I are completely dumbfounded.  Why does Gavin prefer someone he spends the least time with compared to his grandparents and his even his parents?  The answer is definitely not because he finds her more intriguing since he hardly gets to spend any time with her.  If that were the case, then he would also be demonstrating an eagerness to be around strangers.

There are times when he only wants to be carried by the maid and he’ll reject the rest of us if we try to carry him.  Then there are the times when only the maid can get him to do something we all fail at.  For instance, he used to hate having his face wiped during a meal and would protest to the point of screaming, but when it was the maid who wiped his face, he would sit placidly while she completed the task.  When he refuses to sit in his highchair, the maid will be the only one who can coax him into it.

I thought at first it was because she was the one that always gave in to him while the rest of us were always telling him not to climb, not to play with the power sockets, not to play with the phone or the remote controls, etc.  Since then, I have seen her take things from him that we feel he should not play with and it still has not diminished his preference for her. 

So while some parents give their babies to the maids to carry, mine is carried by the maid not because I choose it but because my son chooses it.  I find this behaviour truly perplexing.

It seems somewhat disturbing that my son prefers the maid to me.  I would have felt better if he had preferred his grandparents.

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