Any topic with regards to working moms, relatives and house staff can turn into a controversial black hole but it is a topic I want to discuss just to get more insights from the community. As a working mom (and I am working from home), I feel luckier than moms that have to travel to offices but working from home does not mean free time watching TV or cuddling with your child whilst your computer shows you are online. It takes dedication, seriousness, and focus. Relatives sometimes don’t get this. They think you are playing FarmVille and chatting with your friends.
Therefore, house chores must be outsourced to house staff or helpers. I cringe whenever I sprout out of my office table, only to find no one has cooked lunch. Cooking is becoming a chore that no one is really assigned to do. Usually it would be my aunt who cooks but I cannot really oblige her to do so because it is not her role and she is not being paid for it.
It seems that house chores have become a white elephant in my household but I have been meaning to add another staff to handle this – BUT this action may offend my relative. I think moms are always thinking twice whether they should hire another helping hand or not, because some folks raise their eyebrows at them. More and more moms are earning for their family, like my friend who is Selling Gold Jewelry – her main problem are relatives that are impossible to understand. Some days they will offer help and some days they’d say it is not their role and she’d just be surprise to have chores thrown back at her – unannounced.
When she hired house help, her relative feels that the action is snobbish and an insult to the help her relatives are offering. Yet in times of financial crisis, no mom has to deal with drama and just end it by paying someone to get it done. Definitely, I want to spend my free time with my child rather than scrubbing pans and pots. More than this, I need cooked meals by 12nn and 7pm because I have slaved myself from work all day!
What are your thoughts on this and have you found yourself in this situation?
Mommy Lace is a blogger from the Philippines. She started this blog to share information on pregnancy, breastfeeding, childcare, family, and health.
