@nannyofcelebrities thanks for your response. I totally get all your points and yes, if you boil it down, the reason I have a nanny who works what would be considered crazy hours in the west is because it's culturally acceptable here, and yes, maybe I tell myself it's ok because I pay her better than most and certainly treat her better than anyone else I know.
Regarding pay, the context is really important because you earn more than double what I do. So while my package is excellent for this part of the world (for a local; not for a foreigner), it would be impossible for me to pay any helper anywhere close to a normal nanny rate in the UK, let alone a high-end one, as that is more than I earn. The economy is just not comparable. Likewise, I cannot earn enough here to build myself a house in my hometown even in a couple of decades, whereas my nanny has achieved this in just a few years.
Nannies here can and do have children and continue working. They either work live-out, and I know women who manage this even as single mothers but it does require community support (which thankfully there is a lot of in their culture), or they send their babies home to extended family. That set-up is really tough but, again, normal here. My own nanny was raised in this way, living in a different country from her own mother until she was in her teens. Those who work live-out would typically do shorter hours, maybe working for a family where both parents don't work full hours so they don't need childcare from early til late. Even with fewer hours, they often earn far more than their husbands do. My nanny prefers live-in and has specifically requested that I help her find a similar role when I leave (I will relocate later this year, and when I told her she wept and said I'd changed her life, she would never forget me, she will never find a family like mine etc etc, so while I would never minimise how hard she works and that this is a job for her, I also know she feels lucky to have this job).
I appreciate what you say about the long hours being normalised and I agree, to an extent. But here this is not limited to this industry. The security guards I know here typically work 14 hour shifts, often 6 days. The cleaning ladies in offices rather than homes also work long days, including weekends, though not as long as that. Factory workers doing 12/6 is normal. And they earn less than half what an average nanny earns. I'm not saying this to excuse it - the poverty here is dreadful - but rather to say that while the nanny rates seems pitiful compared to the west, they are actually way, way higher than most uneducated people will ever even imagine earning.
One final point but this is definitely not typical of people in my situation - I actually spent my 20s working in a boarding environment, which involved long holidays but during term time I typically worked 12 hours 5 days a week, slightly shorter on Saturdays, and was on call for the other 12 several nights a week in theory, but every night in practice. The longest break I had most weeks was 24 hours, from Saturday evening til Sunday tea time, but not every week. It's a very different job from nannying but the principle is the same; I was basically a teacher during school hours and a carer before school and after school, living alongside the kids. So I probably have a bit more understanding of the commitment in both time and mental energy than most other people do.
You've actually given me a lot to think about. There are definitely those that arrive in countries like this thinking they won't hire help as it's expolitative, but I think foreigners hiring people and generally giving them better conditions and pay (relatively) makes a small difference to market conditions, as lots of ladies refuse to accept lower pay and longer hours once they've worked for foreigners. There are groups here who gather info from (mostly foreign) families and publish it, and this has gradually improved average rates and conditions fo domestic staff even in the years I've been here. Baby steps, but it is something.