Maid Service? How do you decide?

[Anonymous]

As a single bachelor in a house much too big for myself. I have taken the next step to selling out. I am about to hire a maid. Due to work, travel, social requirments, life maintenance, etc; I have to sell out. I told myself I would never hire a maid, they drove me nuts as a kid. Ma would pressure us to make sure the house was always clean and neat so the maids would not think we were slobs! Go figure.

So what is the commie take on maid service? From both sides: the maid and the employeer.

Before you flame me for having this capitalist service, do you think Marx, Lenin, and Castro clean thier own bathroom?


BTW anyone refer a good service?


(Edited by kelvin9 at 7:01 pm on June 7, 2003)

[mentalbunny]

I think it's fair enough to hire a maid if you are too busy, as long as she gets paid properly and isn't working in absolutely disgusting conditions. It can be a very oppressive job but private cleaners seem to do better than those who work for agencies and have to go to work at 5 in the morning for the minimum wage!

[Zombie]

Bachelor with a big house? Here's an idea: get a roommate.

[antieverything]

...hiring maids is great. I encourage even middle class families to hire one...or three. I'm actually quite serious. My mother has many friends (the janitors, mostly...she's a teacher) who always ask her if their sister or daughter can clean our house for money. They need the money. I don't see anything wrong with someone who is well off putting some money back into the economy...even if they do it out of laziness.

[Zombie]

it depends really. I see a lot of people who got foreign maids and who treat them like slaves, or sub-human to an extent. I think having (a) roommate(s) is a lot better, housework is split in two or three, and you get all the fun that comes with living with other friends ;)

[Soul Rebel]

whatever you do please dont hire a maid from a national company like MERRY MAIDS. Most of the people working for them are womyn and they get treated horribly and get paid nothing. If you do hire someone- hire an independent worker. Look through the newspaper for one, or at the bulletin boards at stores. At least they will really clean your house (you would be shocked to find out what co. like Merry Maids really do-its not cleaning) and hopefully (on your part) get paid well.

I have issues with maid services because its still very sexist and racist. Its usually poor immigrant or minority womyn working for maid services. It helps to keep social roles constant- know what i mean?

[Anonymous]

Quote: from mentalbunny on 7:08 pm on June 7, 2003
I think it's fair enough to hire a maid if you are too busy, as long as she gets paid properly and isn't working in absolutely disgusting conditions. It can be a very oppressive job but private cleaners seem to do better than those who work for agencies and have to go to work at 5 in the morning for the minimum wage!


OK. I'll stay away from the big agencies. I'll see if I can look up a mom and pop local business. I would not be comfortable with giving my keys to the house to a private person with no prior history.

Get a roommate? I'd rather not have another person bring more mess into the house.


So then having a maid is not capitlist? Hmm learn something new everyday.

[mentalbunny]

Well it depends on why you have a maid and how you treat her. A woman from a local agnecy comes and cleans at my home, but mainly for my granny so my mum doesn't have to do it, and she's basically become a friend.

[Ian]

Marx loved his maids... There are rumours he fathered his maid's child... :)

[Anonymous]

How very....bourgeois of him.

[Vinny Rafarino]

Quote: from Dark Capitalist on 1:00 am on June 8, 2003
How very....bourgeois of him.

How is fathering a maid's child considered bourgois?

[antieverything]

Certainly hiring a maid is an example of the capitalist system...some people can only scrape a living by cleaning up the homes of the wealthy...that doesn't mean that they don't need the money.

[El Mas Cabron]

I think it is perfectly fine to hire a maid. I just graduated high school, and I'm about to be on my own, but growing up, we had a maid that came every friday be clean, it's not that we are lazy, but i had school, my mom takes care of my 3 younger brothers and sisters, and she just can't do everything on her own. It's not exploitation, we don't pay her a terrible wage, and we're good to her, we take care of her like family, I think its very good think to have a maid if you really need one and you treat them fairly and pay them right.

[dopediana]

we had a maid in brasil. her name was fatima. she was really cool. we got along great. i'd get home from school and we'd just talk and do crossword puzzles and talk about goings on in vila planalto and shit like that while she cooked dinner. it wasn't one of those relationships where the maid feels she has to tolerate and be polite to the employer's kid. she was also the mother of one of my friends which is how we ended up hiring her in the first place.

i was friends, like i've mentioned before, with all the poor kids in vila planalto. we payed fatima really well and helped out buying schoolbooks for her daughter, etc.

it kills me how some people treat maids like shit though, especially in third world countries because rich people actually do have some inflated notion that they're superior to their maids.

[Ian]

Marx lived in terrible conditions throughout his adult life, not really what you would call bourgeois, he pawned almost all the Marx family's furniture to fund the writing of Das Kapital

[mentalbunny]

Well Marx, amoung other influential leftist figures, had a borgeois background. So what? You don't choose where you're born. The point is he didn't go on to exploit others for profit.

[Anonymous]

Quote: from COMRADE RAF on 1:13 am on June 8, 2003

Quote: from Dark Capitalist on 1:00 am on June 8, 2003
How very....bourgeois of him.

How is fathering a maid's child considered bourgois?


The same way sexual harrasment is considered exploitation in modern society. An employer or superior engaged in a sexual relation with a subordonate has an unequal relationship.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the advice folks. I am pretty sure I will not look for a nation wide chain. At the same time I will have to do more homework to find someone I can trust.

[Urban Rubble]

I don't know what kind of town you live in, but maybe you could put up flyers ? Or just look in the want ads.

What I want to know is, why do you need such a big house ? This isn't speaking from a communist view either, I've always said (before I even knew what communism was) that if I ever came into money that I'd probably have a pretty modest house. I don't really see what the point is in having a big ass house where half of it never gets used. Plus, by living in a modest house you have more money to spend on things you like, travel, maybe snowmobile or something =). I don't know, I just like smaller houses.