People in India-do you have a servant maid/hired help to assist you?

I am one who depends too much on servants .It is true I can just do only some necessary work and leave the rest .But I want to do everything in time also .So I sort of panic and irritate others also .I know I am wrong but I am unable to change my stupid nature.As soon as the servants turns up my fave brigtens and I start talking to her .But if the maid often takes leave I will start looking for another .Once I have another maid then only I dismiss the previous one.

Hey, We and our neighbor have the same maid. She lives in a different community not very far away. She never actually warns anybody before taking the day off. Now whenever she does it, my neighbor gets really mad. She is quite angry all the time. She sometimes pays us visit and our maid is always a major agenda. Oh, sometimes she looks so angry, that my mom has to soothe her with tea, snacks etc. Now, my mother says that this maid of ours has a very special technique of indirectly suggesting an imminent mishap. She often says, "Oh, I have such a dreadful headache!" or, "I am having terrible fever, doctor asked me to take rest". Then my mom knows that she is actually referring to something else. Then things happen exactly according to my mom's anticipations. Our maid takes leave, our neighbor runs amok, and like always, she has to be appeased with variety of snacks and tea. Then some person from the same locality as of our maid informs my mom that our maid actually went to visit some distant relative that day, and wow, that complicates the matter even more. LOL Take care God bless you

I didn't have any help till my older son was 3 and we moved to a bigger place and there were carpenters and I had to take him to school and lots of other things which didn't give me the time to do all the household chores. Till two years back, I had a hard time with the maids/help. They would take off without warning..sometimes going off for 2 days..and sometimes for a month without warning. The hardest time I had was soon after my second one was born...I found it very difficult to find someone who would really do their work or even stay. My husband used to tease me and say that I had changed more than 40-50 maids in 2 years. But now, I have someone who has been helping me for almost 2 years now. She does not take off without warning and that too for not more than 2 days in a month. She is very nice and I am relaxed ..so I do turn a blind eye to minor things. Fortunately for me, she started working for me a week before I started a full time job and has stuck with me since.

I am not from India and for me to have any type of servant would be way beyond my means! I would love it though! An Australian friend of mine lived in Bangkok for many years due to her husband’s work and there, she had a live in nanny for her two children and a housekeeper who used to cook and clean. When she moved back to Australia she had to let the servants go and she was devastated. I remember her telling a group of us mums that she had no idea how to manage without her nanny! We all looked at her in amazement; we couldn’t even imagine having a nanny!

well Kala...in the olden days...or rather ,let me rephrase it.......in my childhood......we had lots of servants in our huge home,and they were so loyal and obedient and loving and were trustworthy too...But now times have changed and so also the attitude of servants.....Now having a maid to help is becoming real pain in the a**....Pardon my expression...its unlady like but it says all........sigh

I think I have nothing to react or to be surprise. Because in every country I know they also hire helpers or maid. I think its how we treat our helpers that makes a difference. In our country an helpers is some what low in nature. Because they accept payment much much below the average salary. .. So it's really sad in your country because some maids are even college graduate. But because of lack of job opportunity instead of staying home they work as helpers or maid.

This is a problem faced by many ladies at home front. It is difficult to get sincere and good servant maids. Many steal at the available opportunity, talk bad about our family to other outsiders and do not render clean work. Hence I usually tolerate this absentism to a larger extent. I show my face now and then, some arguments and altercations take place but again the routine continues.

I am in a poor family. So I have to do everything by myself. No body would help me .

hi kalav56 I guess our standards of living are different here in the U S as you must be pretty wealthy to be able to afford a maid. Our rich families often have maids but even most of the middle class have only these maids, ourselves, when I was young and we had our own house, I was the maid, the chief cook and bottle washers, errand runners, house keeper and and valet,butler and child caregiver.so I never have had a maid or servant at all.

Hi Kalav56, In the Uk where I live, most people cannot afford to hire a maid, though I would have love to have one, only the well off people, the rich can afford to hire a maid, I have to do everything in our household eacept do the laundry, my husband does that and he works too, I won't do the laundry, I put my foot down to that one, I do everything else round the house. Tamara

As long as u get in a habit or keeping servants ,, U will need them and depend upon them,and as long as u are a working woman U will need then,,,,IF u are not working ,, try up keeping your HOME/house,see how easy it will be,,get in the habit,WE do not have any servants, for the last 27 years

Hi kala, one of the conditions I impose at the beginning is they have to inform in advance when they are taking off, otherwise, I would be deducting substantial amount from their pay. Second thing - if they are likely to be away for more than two days, they should arrange for alternate. The maid I have at present does a bad job, but she does not bunk. :) So I am pretty relaxed about this aspect.

Well, yes we had too.. as many have old parents who need to be taken care and the sons and daughters goes to work, so needs someone assistance to help out them. But however housemakers dont prefer much rather than the one goes home!

Yes I do have maid and really get irritated when they take leave I am really ok with it if they tell me before hand coz they also have work that they need to attend to. I really had a good maid but coz I shifted some months back I have really got irritated. The last maid got her daughter for a month and then sent her to some other place and then said that she would work which was not at all possible coz he works in my neighbour's house for full time and wants to squeeze out some time and finish off my house work. She used to look tired often so I told her that I won't be able to manage as both and my neighbour's work suffers and I do not want to spoil my relationship as she and I are on very good terms so I had to ask her to go.

When my kids were small I used to have maid to take care of them and to do the household chores but now I don't need these helpers as having one is only raising my BP. They come and go and no permanency. But the one we have in my mom's house has been a long serving maid, 11 years to be exact. She is from Indonesia and has been mom's most trusted aid. She is able to dispense mom's daily medication which I myself couldn't even remember the names of the tablets. She used to travel with mom when she goes for vacations and her long service only makes her like any one of us but the only difference is she is under payroll.

hello kalav, in my own home i have one, she takes 1000 rupees a month, plus tiffins, tea daily two times, her son comes with her most of the days, so tea and breakfast for him, one pair saree in a year, in spite of that she is absent 3-4 days a month, if you ask the reason you get a vague answer, at times with a rude tone My wife and daughter in law tolerate her, because there is no way out, how many we will change, they suck us Happy posting, cheers Prof

hey that'a pretty normal situation in india i suppose cause more than they need the job, they know that we need them- the servants! well i think u should assign her certain amount of holidays all round the year. in case she takes some more extra days then cut some money from her fees :)simple! :) but let me warn u that u would have to change servants often then! ;)