Pancake troubles

I just finished my breakfast - a breakfast that promised to be nice, but ended up ruined. I bought a box of pancake mix recently, and tried to teach my maid to fry it. Past maids who made my pancakes did not seem to have any trouble following my instructions - 1 cup pancake mix, 3/4 cup water, mix and fry. Hm. This maid, who absolutely has no cooking sense, made me a pile of pancakes, one of which had to be discarded because it had first-degree burns. The whole time, I was standing there overseeing the process. The steps were correct, but contextual factors affected. (1) She got a huge bowl to mix the pancake mix and water, thus, the mixture was very shallow, making it difficult to mix. (2) She used a spoon and not a fork or a whisk to mix it, thus the mixture was not sufficiently smooth. (3) She poured in a lot of oil, making the pancake very oily as if it is the kuehs sold my Malays. (4) The frying pan was old and dirty and possibly had carbon (and don't know what else) sticking to its surface. (5) While pouring the mixture into the pan, she kept pouring it over the exact same spot - the centre - making for a rather unsightly and thick pancake and small round pancake unlike what we are used to. It is torturous standing there repeating instructions and she just not getting it and pulling a black face. Now I know how my grandma feels when she taught her to cook. Now that I have identified the possible factors affecting the quality of my pancake, I will attempt to make pancakes again next week, and seek to establish a foolproof system of making the perfect pancake.