Did your family hire a housecleaner when you were growing up?

This thread is going to be about class AND the differences between Brits and Americans. I can't wait.

Our house was too small for that to be a reasonable thing to consider doing.

We did briefly in '68-'70 when my brother and I were both preschool age and my mother was working fulltime. She was sort of a combo nanny/housekeeper/cook.

Also I'm American.

Never. I'm Amurrican.

It would add too many options, but to be complete this should include whether you lived in a single parent home / two parents both with full time jobs / two parents only one worked.

Good call. Two parents, dad worked on the road, mom stayed at home until we were old enough to be home alone and worked part time.

I am American and yes we had someone clean the house once a week but only when both of my parents were working 10+ hour days running a restaurant.

Never, ever, once. Bizarre idea (to me). Two parents, dad away on long Navy tours often while growing up but not after the late eighties or so.

Almost never hired one except maybe before a holiday where people were coming over. One parent working a lot of hours, one working only a little for the first ten years of my life or so, more later (running a business from home). Our house was never very clean though.

What Ned said, the idea is odd to me. I dont think growing up I was aware of anyone with housekeepers either, it would have seemed extreme and wealthy - but I grew up in a regional city and in the 70s-80s where mums were more often at home than not, I guess.

Even now, the very idea of having a maid/cleaner in for anything apart from an end of lease spring clean seems... indulgent, to me. I'd love it though.

I thought this only happened on the Fresh Prince and stuff.

I always got the sense that here in the States it was something only fairly well-off people did.

"I'm American, and we had a housecleaner occasionally."

but really not until my mom started going back to work when i was a teenager, and it was only when the place needed a good scrubbing and we were all too busy to pitch in.

^^ Yeah, that was pretty much our situation. I said once a week but sometimes it wasn't that often.

I'm American, and we had a housecleaner on a regular basis or fairly often.

once a week on the reg. fela (RIP) and then blanca.

(xpost) and we were a small family without that many expenses, so it didn't feel like a huge waste of money. we had an urban apartment; it's not like the housecleaner had a huge palatial estate to contend with.

Gotta say, anyone with a big house you can kind of understand having a maid/cleaner. Theres a lot of work in upkeep on big homes.

I'm American, and we had a housecleaner on a regular basis or fairly often.

after my parents got divorced and my mom was working full time & getting her masters degree, we had a housecleaner come once every two weeks or so. this only went on for a few years until i think the expense began to outweigh the benefit.

also, me and my sister were totally irresponsible and unwilling to be decent and help out.

american, never. I actually went out of my way to make fun of and ridicule a girlfriend who talked openly about her "maid" (she was not american), and a friend who also talked about her housecleaner (she was american). then we hired some when my wife got pregnant/shortly after having the kid and holy crap was it nice, although, the house only maintained that sense of orderliness for about two days. we could use one again I suppose. anyway, the elitist aspect of this lost its sting when I, hypocritically, realized I needed one.

american, never. in fact, my mom was a housecleaner for other people for a number of years during the 70s.

never, too poor

never, too poor

no way. my parents would have thought it was way too bourgeois, even if we could have afforded it.

my wife and i, otoh, both employed full-time, have been paying someone to come in every week or two since our first son was born. i have mixed feelings about it, not least because my stuff keeps getting moved around and sometimes i can't find my shoes.

never.

my granny had one but my immediate family did not

I wouldn't say we were poor, at least not after we got out of the trailer park and my dad started working for a company that actually sent him his paychecks. We watched our expenses and got by. But having a housekeeper would have felt like a completely frivolous expense, or at least one that could be exchanged for a more enjoyable frivolous expense if we'd just pick up after ourselves.

I'm Australian and we had a housecleaner most fortnights. Although my mum always went mad and cleaned up before the cleaner arrived.

I was basically raised by live-in housekeepers until I was about 9, at which point my parents got divorced.

never: my mum had kids instead

I'm Australian or other and no, never. Two working parents.

Although my mum always went mad and cleaned up before the cleaner arrived.

LOL Ive heard this from people before.

I'm American, and my mom would sometimes hire our neighbor to clean the house before the extended family came over for the holidays. Usually, the cleaning was split between me and my siblings.

South African set of choices avoided?

"some other weird nationality" imo

American, cleaning lady once a week from the time I was 10. Our cleaning lady was a good but much older friend of my mother's and we had to pre-clean a bit before she arrived. My mom was in divorceville by then so the need was there.

Best thing about cleaner: she had a checkbook holder that said OH SHIT, IT BOUNCED!

The servants lived downstairs, there was Molly the Maid, Thorpe the Gardner, Billy the Delivery Boy, Edna the House-Keeper and Daniels the Butler. Standard practice in most British households.

No. Saturdays were always 'cleaning day,' everyone in the family had to clean their own room, take care of their laundry, dust, etc. and then do some other cleaning chore (bathroom, vacuuming, mowing grass). It took my dad fifteen years to tell me that my mom wouldn't notice if i didn't air out the rugs.

never, too poor

I'm British btw.

My grandma is a housecleaner, mostly for elderly ladies. She still does it even though technically she's an elderly lady herself now.

Our cleaning lady cost $18 per visit in the '80s. Her presence freed up the household child labour for yard work or snow shoveling.

My mum used to be a cleaner as well but she cleaned a hairdressers, not a house, and just as a second job.

I'm some other weird nationality, and my family was working-class, so no way coud we hire a housecleaner. Personal housecleaners are not that common in Finland anyway, I know that some rich families have them, but even middle-class families rarely do.

Both my mom and I have worked as cleaners, though not as housecleaners.

big difference betw. "never had one" and "almost never had one"

I don't think this is quite the bourgeois luxury that a lot of people are painting it as. And definitely there's a difference between someone who comes for an hour once a week/fortnight and live-in "staff". We weren't exactly wealthy but my mother was out of the house for a hundred hours a week, had uncooperative children and liked it clean when she was home.

That being said, it still made me feel very uncomfortable and I don't think ever do it, no matter how well-off I might be.

(Never going to be at all well-off btw)

I think even a once-per-week cleaner would be considered a bourgeois luxury in here, but I guess it's different in the US?

I think even a once-per-week cleaner would be considered a bourgeois luxury in here, but I guess it's different in the US?

― Tuomas, Tuesday, July 14, 2009 11:14 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

probably not by the bourgeoisie...

Oh god you should have heard a relative of mine go BATSHIT that nurses are allowed to wear scrubs now, how unprofessional that is, and how people just can't even TELL who's a doctor and who's a nurse anymore, I mean HOW are you supposed to know who to show RESPECT TO if you can't tell who went to med school and who didnt?!?!??

Fuck that crazy bat a million times, I am so glad to have her out of my life.

I'd be more at ease with the doctors putting a little more effort into dressing up than the nurses, though my surgeon had a good point when he told me that he was tired of cleaning blood off of his loafers.

Loafers are supposed to be the colour of dried blood for a reason!

You don't get a lot of sympathy from people when you say things like "But I don't know how to mop!"

See, this shit used to drive me CRAZY.

When I was in college, I was in a fraternity. Part of living in the house was learning how to do the house chores - we were not one of the fraternities with enough money to get a cleaning service more than two or three times a semester.

And this doing of the chores was one of the biggest divides in the house. You could totally tell the kids who were from homes where they had no part in cleaning. Some - most, actually - were totally cool about it, and treated it like another skill to learn. "Hmm! Now I know how to trim shrubs!"

Others, and I can still see their faces, acted as if housework of any type was below them. And that any requests for them to do their chores - "JARED! Will you PLEASE mop the fucking bathroom?!?!? ONCE, during your assigned week?!?! FUCK!" - were an affront to their existence.

Man, I do not miss the cleanliness standards in that house at all.

I am now calling cordovan shoes 'surgery colored.'

Keep in mind that he was a colon doc, so it wasn't just blood on his shoes.

Despite not knowing how to clean properly, I do try to learn a little bit. But folks shouldn't get too upset with me when I put Palmolive in the dishwasher instead of Cascade.

I hope you act like Amelia Bedilia.

Hahaha Amelia Bedelia ruled.

Speaking of Amelia Bedilia, in first grade we had a 'visit' from Amelia Bedilia, who was like a large black woman in a maid uniform (lol Idaho) but we did not give a fuck at the lack of verisimilitude bcz it was fucking Amelia Bedilia and now I am wondering if she was the only person w/a maid costume in town.

But folks shouldn't get too upset with me when I put Palmolive in the dishwasher instead of Cascade.

Yes. Yes "they" should.

"People shouldn't get too upset with me when I am told to use the Palmolive for handwashing the dishes and then I handwash the dishes when I use my palm to rub them with olives."

Even though the sponge cake had cut up sponges in it, Amelia Bedilia still had a proper cake of her own made when her employers got home, and if she didn't know how to "dress" a turkey, she made something else for dinner instead. And the lightbulbs could be taken off the washing line, no harm done.

My friend sewed a maid uniform because she was the MAID of honor at our wedding, do you see how far I will go in honor of a bad pun.

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1114/wesandersonposter.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

xp about the cleaning lady uniform -- I'm sure part of it hearkens back to "the old days" when rich people had servants that wore matching outfits/uniforms, but part of it could considerably be advertising for the company she works for, if the uniform has a company logo or something on it. I'm sure another aspect is that the company owners don't exactly trust the judgment of their employees, and they don't want their staff showing up in a blingee tribute t-shirt to a dead relative or something "in poor taste" so the client complains.

I was disappointed that the nurses at my clinic wore scrubs with cartoon characters on them instead of Nurse Ratchet uniforms.

I sort of agree.

House cleaner necessary for continued marital happiness.

thats one hell of a personal ad a++++

In my experience, people who don't know how to mop don't know they don't know how to mop. I used to live with a girl who would put a great deal of effort into mopping the kitchen floor -- all completely wasted because she hadn't swept first ffs.

Maybe, just maybe, the uniform is down to the idea that the cleaner will have something to change into so they don't get their street clothes all dirty from cleaning?

Yeah, totally, I love it when class angst trumps the practicals. That almost never happens.

Do you wear a uniform when you clean your house? Do you think the cleaning lady wears a uniform when she cleans her own house? She's wearing a uniform because she is employed to clean and it's company rules. Why they made those rules and the semiotics of the uniform or particular design elements of said uniform are debatable, but I seriously doubt it has to do with her getting her street clothes dirty.

I do have certain clothes that I wear when I clean the house, so I don't get nasty bleach and unmentionable stains all over my street clothes, yes. I'm not saying that this is the only reason for uniforms, but I do think that there is the potential for simple practicality, along the lines of scrubs for medical professionals and overalls for mechanics, as opposed to automatically reading negative intentions into everything.

The overalls for mechanics is a similar thing ... when I take my car to the shop the mechanics wear coveralls or uniforms. When I get a friend of mine to fix my car, he's usually wearing grubby jeans and a sweatshirt or flannel or t-shirt, which is pretty much what the guys I know wear when they work on their own cars.

The uniform is functional, yes, but there is more to it than just function. It signifies professionalism, that this person is paid to do this work - which isn't necessarily a negative connotation. If you perceive lack of choice in workwear as a sign that someone is being exploited, or if you view someone wearing a uniform with their employer's logo on it or of a design/color associated with that employer - thus being in some way a walking advertisement for said employer - as a sign of exploitation - then yes, the uniform has definite negative connotations.

Hell, there are people that see someone in a uniform and respond as if they are inferior to them or unintelligent. I've experienced this first hand -- doing the same work in a uniform in some places and in a suit in others. It certainly was a lot more comfortable wearing the uniform, but the suit commanded more respect.

Do you wear a uniform when you clean your house?

I know someone who did. Of course she had a cleaner herself and would "clean" alongside her cleaning lady. She also had purple hair.

that's pretty awesome.

The funniest moment was when some art students (from the nearby highschool) sat on her pavement. She objected. They sang Purple Rain in retort.

I'm from a weird country and I can only think of one person who I know for sure employs a cleaner at all, and that's my aunt who makes fuckloads of $$$. I remember feeling a bit annoyed about that when I found out, cos it's not like she or her husband work loads of hours each week and can't just do the cleaning themselves, but I figure someone's getting a paycheque out of it, and they probably need the money more than rich aunt does.

I clean in just my underwear bcz I don't like messing up clothes (I don't really have any schlubby clothes); painting likewise.

"scrubs with cartoon characters on them instead of Nurse Ratchet"

Nurse Ratchet would be an AWESOME cartoon character

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b259/baroness01/nurserat.jpg

wtf???

omg furry fan art

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2287/2167233568_6f41f6949a.jpg?v=0

morelike nurse raggett

what happened to that New Yorker captions contest?

or maybe

http://dimpost.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/joker-nurse-the-dark-knight.jpg

Sorry, housecleaning right. What you guys think of roombas displacing housecleaners. Less class-stress and whatnot but what will cleaners do for $?

http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/06/26/dd-walle27__ph4_0498697523.jpg

wld hire this guy

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs022.snc1/2646_55823783955_840803955_1400828_7097863_n.jpg

sorry to go off the housekeeper thing again but i just want to point out that autobot nurse is sitting on M.A.S.K. bedspread.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

The overalls for mechanics is a similar thing ... when I take my car to the shop the mechanics wear coveralls or uniforms. When I get a friend of mine to fix my car, he's usually wearing grubby jeans and a sweatshirt or flannel or t-shirt, which is pretty much what the guys I know wear when they work on their own cars.

The uniform is functional, yes, but there is more to it than just function. It signifies professionalism, that this person is paid to do this work - which isn't necessarily a negative connotation.

There's that, yes, but there's also the fact that non-professional people aren't going to go out and buy a mechanics uniform (or maid's uniform) to wear while working on cars because they already have grubby jeans etc which can also be used in other situations. I mean I don't go out and buy an official basketball uniform, a tennis getup, a baseball uni, a track outfit, etc, not because I don't want to be confused with a pro (because that would be awesome), I buy all-purpose shorts/pants and shirts because then I can them wear doing any of those activities.

ok that was mangled. i need a nap.

it's not the worst post you've ever written.

hahaha

the poll demonstrates conclusively that australians and people of other weird nationalities are very posh.

Definitely no house keepers out on our goat farm. Are there housekeepers that you can pay with food stamps?

I'm finding the whole uniform discussion a bit weird because I've never known a cleaner who wore one (I'm talking about the people employed by my parents, their friends and my friends). The cleaners at work do, but for houses I've only seen people wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

When I worked for the ski resort, I wore a uniform - khaki pants, I think some sort of collared golf shirt with the resorts name and logo on it. I also got a resort-branded jacket (which made hitching to and from work super easy). When I freelance cleaned, I just wore whatever and every housecleaner I or my parents have ever hired just wear street clothes.

All I know is that this thread has really made me want to see a version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest enacted entirely by bears.

oh, Alice!

http://images.teamsugar.com/files/users/1/13839/19_2007/Ann_B._Davis.gif