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KOTA KINABALU: With the relaxation of the movement control order (MCO) in Sabah and the reopening of many business sectors, working parents are turning to their parents and other relatives for help to care for their children.
Sales assistant Finella Jacob, 32, gets help from her mother when she and her husband both have to work.
“When both of us need to work on the same day, we get my mum to help out with our two daughters, aged six and three.
“We are blessed to have my mum helping out, even though she needs to care for my brother at the same time; he has Down Syndrome, ”she said.
Sales executive Joanna Pun Yin, 32, said she and her husband usually drop their their elder daughter, three-year-old Arabella Arthurto, at the nursery.
However, that’s not possible with the MCO.
“Our mums would take turns to care for our seven-month old baby Annalisa, but now, we have to depend on them to fully care for our two girls when we are at work,” she said.
Pun said she was truly grateful that both her mother and mother-in-law were able to lend them a hand.
Meanwhile, there are parents who are opting to take unpaid leave, despite financial difficulties.
Jeynna Ginsui, 42, said her husband took a week of unpaid leave to care for their eight-year-old son when she started working.
The shop assistant said her husband worked in the hotel industry which had slowed down considerably, so it made more sense for him to take unpaid leave even though he drew the bigger salary.
She said with the virus situation still unclear, she would not dare send her son to school even if it reopened.
“Once my husband’s unpaid leave is over, we might send our son to a nanny for a couple of months as there is no one to take care of him and we do not wish to risk infecting him,” Jeynna said.
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