Baby Sitting

“Do you think your mother will come and stay with us?” We were lying on the bed in the afternoon. I had been to an interview in the morning and this was the most troubling aspect of my job search. Each time I seemed about to get a job, we worried about Thom. If we both worked who would look after him and inevitably if we did not find good babysitters, I worry so much that my work suffers and I lose my job. That has been the pattern till now. We were hoping amma would come and stay with us and help take care of the baby. But she really was not keen on it, it meant leaving home and coming to Dubai and staying with us. Besides, while I loved having amma here, I really had a problem with Joe’s attitude towards it. To him, amma was doing us a service and he wants to pay her for it and amma wants to be treated as part of the family and feels insulted when she is paid for looking after her grandson.

Anyway yesterday when he was drunk, the tone hadn’t been like this, it was more like, “Hmm!! So your mother won’t come heh! I need to know fast.”
I say, “She didn’t say she is not coming, just that she needed time.”
“What time? Anyone who decides to come, I am getting a three year residence visa.”
I keep silent.
“I don’t think you will get the job.”

But today it is all honey and milk, he wants amma here. He knows no one will look after his son better than amma.
“Ask her again.”
“I will.”
“Why does she not want to come?”
“She says the house is old and if no one lives in it and takes care of it will be attacked by termites.”
“How about Vena? What is she saying? She wants amma to come and stay with us.”
“Yeah, She is the only one who feels amma will better of with us than there.”
“Anyway we will get her here on a visit visa and than see how it goes.”
There it stands. As they haven’t called yet about the job offer, we are keeping our fingers crossed, waiting.