'Clean your own house'

I don't know anyone who has a cleaner. If you can afford one though then why not?

I don't think you can really compare cleaning to plastering or plumbing. You have to train to be a plaster, plumber, electrician. Cleaning is a basic life skill.

Personally I begrudge paying anyone to do anything. I do the cleaning and dh does the plumbing, gardening, electrics. We both do the cooking.

Actually there is a good skit by the League of Gentlemen about this kind of social climber who is seriously pass agg to her cleaner and then it turns out the cleaner is her mother. Very funny and very true of some women who imagine they've transcended their origins by paying for cleaning

The tooth grinding bit is when it all gets Margo Ledbetter and "a little man from the village delivers the vegetables". Ie "I have a marvellous cleaner what a wonderful woman" and then ten minutes of her virtues as a person: she has a job, she's presumably good at it, stop blathering on

I think paying for a cleaner is a social good. People who have time, need money and don't mind doing housework get paid for it whilst people who don't have time, have spare (ha!) money and/or don't like doing housework are saved what is to them a chore. Not that I pay a cleaner, personally, for more reasons than one, but it does make sense.

I think a small proportion of people on here see being a cleaner as a bit degrading and asking for advice on having one comes across (to them) as if you were asking for advice on employing a bum-wiper (like Henry VIII) to which the reply “wipe your own bum!” would be fair enough.

The rest of us see cleaning as pretty skilled work (done well) and perfectly respectable to do or to employ someone to do. I have a cleaner, I’ve also been a cleaner 🤷‍♀️

No one comments on a man not doing enough housework.
Have you met Mumsnet?

We have one for 3 hrs every 2 weeks who does hoovering stairs/landings, bathroom, ironing and sometimes something kitchen related, ie floor, or oven, or fridge but never all 3.
I'd like her to do a couple more hours ideally but she is too busy to take any more work on.
We each clean our own bedrooms/living spaces.
I'd say if you can afford it, even for a short time it's definitely worth it. There are some tasks that everyone hates or has too much of to keep in check.

I love having a cleaner. It's one of my little luxuries & I don't care what people think. My mum finally gave in recently & got someone to come to hers just once a fortnight for things that are getting harder for her to do & she wishes she'd done it years ago

I know loads of people who have one & judging by our local FB page there's a huge demand for them

I don't think it's unusual to have a cleaner but I'm always exasperated by the poster who says 'It has taken me three days to clean my house so I've decided to get a cleaner. Do you think two hours a week will be enough?'

I know it's easy to be distracted when cleaning one's own house but be realistic.

Also, I have a five bedroom, four bathroom house and four children don't think two hours a fortnight will be enough hours for a cleaner to clean the house from top to bottom?

I'm seriously considering getting a cleaner twice a week.

DH and I are both retired and no health or mobility problems.

We just hate housework as its so boring and repetitive.

We can afford it so why not!

This. And no man ever worries about his house being 'visitor-ready', or doesn't invite people over because it would involve a 48-hour cleaning blitz, or lives in dread of someone giving them a lift home who might ask to use the loo.

Then again, neither do I, or any woman I know, and I had no idea other women obsessed about it or still prided themselves on being 'houseproud' till I encountered them on here. To me it's like meeting women who were against female suffrage or equal pay, and fairly tragic and reactionary.

My mother and MIL were both cleaners till their retirement. My SIL is a cleaner. I've been a cleaner myself. I have a cleaner. Assuming you pay your cleaner fairly and don't treat him or her like some 19thc skivvy, whether or not you do your own housework is a complete moral neutral, and whether or not your house is clean (beyond basic hygiene) is also a complete moral neutral. You are not a better person because your skirting boards are dust-free.

That's basically it.

Although I don't see it much, tbh. More often I see advice to get a cleaner.

It's just another form of judgement. See also:
"I don't understand why people have cleaners, why don't just clean their own houses"
"I don't understand why you don't have time to go to the gym, why don't you get a cleaner"
"I don't understand why people have children just to send them to nursery/childcare/have a nanny/boarding school"
"I don't understand people who don't put a hot dinner on the table every night"
"I don't understand how someone can let themselves go - if I put on a pound I diet until it's back off again"
"I don't understand how people say they don't have time to get their nails done/have a facial/do hobbies - you just have to make it a priority"
"I don't understand how people are untidy, you just put everything back where it lives"
"I don't understand why her kids are so badly behaved, I wouldn't let mine behave like that"

If I can afford one, I’d have one!

Purely anecdotal of course but some members of my family hold the view you should clean your own home, but they come from generations where families lived on one income and there was a lot more time for housework/taking pride in your home compared to now where often both partners are working and one income won’t stretch. They’re also quite proud and are of the view that asking for help/delegating housework is a sign that you’re struggling and they wouldn’t want others to know that. But that’s their own view of course.

I suppose some people hate cleaning and would gladly pay for someone else to take it off their hands, but for others cleaning is something they don’t mind doing/can find time for - so spending money on a cleaner is seen as a waste of cash. You get a lot of difference of view re how you spend your cash on here though. Some people think takeaways are a lovely treat and it’s great not to cook, but others think they can cook better than any takeaway and the money is a waste. Nobody is necessarily wrong, just have different priorities about how their income is spent.

I’d love a cleaner but my kids would undo their hard work in such rapid form that I can’t bear to throw the money at it.

A million reasons, some ideological.

It's a job. Paying for a service is not an act of evil. Thinking you are better than someone who does a service for you is different.

I do clean my home, but I like my cleaner to come once a fortnight to come and focus on deep cleans of the bathrooms and the kitchen.

I’d love a cleaner. In the past I’ve had a cleaner. Now I can’t afford one, so I don’t.

On Mumsnet it’s expected that you do have a cleaner. I only know a couple of people who have a cleaner, and they don’t have kids or work longer hours than the norm. I think it’s fine if that’s what you want to spend your money on. But at the same time people shouldn’t feel that everyone should have a cleaner, and feel like they’re living a life of poverty if they have to clean their own toilet.

Can you show me where I said there was shame in being a cleaner?

"Everyone you know has a cleaner" is hyperbole. (I hate hyperbolic, sweeping statements.). I doubt your cleaner has one and you know them, or don't they count?

I haven't often seen that comment so are you posting just to pick a fight? Most people really don't care what others do.

I have a regular cleaner but it's not up to me to judge whether other do or don't. Just pay the person properly and treat them well. Simple.

No I don't care what you spend your money on. I'm just saying that in my world having a cleaner is not the norm. It's only on MN that I see having a cleaner is the normal thing to do.

Do you know anyone who is a cleaner? It's just a job and can be outsourced like any other task such as gardening or car maintenance. I had a cleaner for a couple of hours a week when I was working. I also know a retired teacher who does cleaning because she likes it. There's no shame either way.

Agree with this.
Having a cleaner seems fairly common on mumsnet, I've seen it advised countless times.
I don't have one personally but I know quite a few people who do.