To be uncomfortable with my cleaner bringing her child

I agree with you if that were the situation.

If I had employed someone to clean my house for 2 hours a week and she rocked up with another person I would consider that to be a real overstepping and would say that wasn't what I booked and not what I wanted. I would make it clear anyone who was cleaning (or doing any other job) for me was not then entitled to invite anyone else into my home.

However the OP has said that her cleaner has done this several times before, with other people and the OP has been fine with that.

So, I think she IBU, because of objecting on one of the following reasons
a) because he was related to cleaner (seems unlikely)
b) he is U18
c) he is male

Yet she said his work was fine. So it wanders into prejudice.

It’s your house - you tell her what you want or don’t want. Fwiw - I think you’re being pretty mean. It’s not like he’s come in, lounged on the sofa, stayed on his iPhone and demanded drinks. He did a decent job as you said - so no idea what the issue is.

The point is you didn’t ask for two cleaners ! You asked for one and she has decided to bring her son. No, I would get rid of her. I don’t like people taking the pee.

Because they're 15, they're not an adult. Because they don't have experience.

As you haven't employed a 15 year old to clean your house and don't know anything about him it's not unreasonable you feel aggrieved. I'd find another cleaner but I'm very intolerant. I'd employ a 15 year old possibly to walk my dog or deliver groceries but nothing involving being in my house.

Exactly. The difference between a plumber/window cleaner and a cleaner is that the latter has access to all areas of your house on a regular basis and it’s more of a personal relationship rather than a purely business one. I trust my cleaner with my keys, but I wouldn’t want her just passing them onto other people I didn’t know

It will cost her the same? Two people take half the time.

You do realise lots of children earn around £15-18 ph.

You can be a lifeguard from 16 and that pays that rate.

Ds was software developing at that age and it pays around that and builds to a lot more!

You Kay for the service not the age.

What if she can’t afford to pay two folk? I couldn’t. Bit presumptuous from the cleaners part.

Interesting.
OP has updated us now anyway, so this is irrelevant.

No, I don't. It was a reflection of the work carried out by the boy, rather than a comparison with the work of his mother. The standard of cleaning by his mother was never mentioned, so I had no reason to link it to this.

But coming at anytime of the day?

Next time I fancy a day off work I'm just going to send one of my kids in. My employer won't mind! 😂

One of the things I most love about Mumsnet is that cleaners can do no wrong no matter how cheeky and to what extent they take the piss.

I'd prefer the cleaner to check with me first, if I was OP.

@ichbrauchenichts99 yeah, I know. I think if she doesn't want him there then say. I personally wouldn't mind as long as he did a good job.

I don’t understand the problem.. mum has a cleaning business and has employed her son as a cleaner. You were happy with the standard of work and paid the usual agreed rate for 2 hrs cleaning (which you received)

You do not know what her sons hourly wage is, he is an employee of hers and could well be getting minimum wage from that £18/hour that you paid? If she took another employee with her, you would pay and be happy with that, I’m really not understanding what the issue is tbh

She's entitled to query anyone who isn't her actual cleaner.

I'm just imagining if she had brought along a young girl, and said that was her colleague, you wouldn't necessarily mind or check their age?
I guess you can say you only employ her and only want/require her. It's good he's helping her out. I used to help my mum teach her students when I was 14 and didn't want to go to school, lol. This was the early 90s though.

I guess my issue is just that other teenagers wouldn’t be getting £18 for an hour of work.

YABVU

Minimum wage is just this, a bare minimum. It has never meant that some people, or some teens, don't get more.

Fair enough if you don't want someone you didn't chose to employ, but refusing to pay someone doing the same job on principle is ridiculous.

You don't read that as not being to the same standard? 🤔

No, she didn't. She said the job was "not perfect, but adequate". There was no mention of what the usual standard is when the mum does it all herself. For all we know he may have done an even better job than his mum.

Sorry to split hairs, but it's an important point.

Funny you should mention window cleaners, this is one of the things I am very fussy about, never more so than the period of time where I was living in my MIL to look after her when her dementia was too bad. I didn't want just anyone turning up who didn't understand that the moment they were seen from the inside by my MIL, she would be banging on the glass and screaming at them. I was so grateful to the fella who did the windows and who knew the situation.

As it happens, I am a domestic cleaner. I started 20 years ago while "between jobs" and never stopped. I am solo, but run it as a business, and can well understand why " there appears to a special case for cleaners on Mumsnet" in terms of not having other cleaners in the house, because I've seen and heard so much over the years that client's wouldn't want to have to keep explaining over & over again to new cleaners. If I had a cleaner, there's no way I'd want more than one person coming in, and I'd certainly want to have built a rapport first.

However, it has to be said that a great many of my clients just hand over door keys and give me instant free reign of their home...maybe it's because I only ever work by recommendation, and people have to wait a long time before I can fit them in, so they know already that I can be trusted.

No - he was just a wee lad. But she still checked first that I was OK with it, she didn't just turn up with an extra person in tow.

Did your cleaner get her son to do the work though?