to NOT want a cleaner?

[OrkaLiely]

it seems to be very common on MN; paying another person to clean your house. Why can't the adults in the house do it between them? And once the kids are old enough to hold a duste,r teach them to help out as well.

I'd hate someone else in our house cleaning up our mess. It sends a bad message to children too. And no-one in this age of dishwashers, washing machines, vacuum cleaners is too busy to do it themselves.

Quattrocento Thu 01-Mar-12 20:26:27
There are numerous household tasks that don't get outsourced and now this thread has got me thinking.

Me too. I'm thinking of getting a woman in to break new shoes in for me.

Do you think I could buy in someone to play 'superheroes' with my kids? I'd never have to be a baddie again - that would be bliss.

Quattrocento - if you're in central London, there's services for outsourcing family dinner, not a cook just for you (in the same way you don't have a cleaner full time just for you), a partner at our work has signed up with a company. They bring round home cooked meals every night, it's not 'takeaway' just 'home cooked like you'd do but better and the mess is in someone else's kitchen'. You get to specify preferences/allergies, then there's a 6 week 'rota' of meals.

Unfortunately I don't know what they are called.

Am of a garden much less a gardener cocoa*

Vivi what size are your feet, I don't mind breaking in new shoes and can use the cash to get myself a cleaner

We had a cleaner two hours a week after DD1 and it was fantastic. Sadly we can't afford it now with 2 lots of nursery to pay for. Come September when DD1 starts school the cleaner is returning.

There's no way I can tidy and clean my house in 20 minutes, plus cook healthy food whilst carrying a clingy 18 month old in the 3.5 days a week I am not at work. As it is poor DD1 gets shoved in front of Disney as soon as DD2 naps (IF she naps) so I can run around and do as much as possible in an hour.

I'm obviously lacking in the stamina required to keep a 3 bedroom house clean and tidy after the kids bedtime.

Actually, a chauffeur would be more useful than a cook. I quite like cooking. I don't like doing all the taxi-ing around.

Guess what. We have a housekeeper. And a gardener. And well rounded, helpful, polite children.

Oh and have a

Does the housekeeper cook? And do taxi-ing?

There was a TV program on a few years ago, where random people wanted to hire domestic help. There was this one vile, vile lady who wanted to have uniformed staff and she wanted the guy to wear a uniform, do all the housework, cook all their meals, drive them around, so basically work about 15 hours a day, for £6 per hour

I WANT A HOUSEKEEPER

And a house with a basement entrance for the domestic staff. And railings. Like a big wedding cake. My mother and I looked up on rightmove the house her grandparents lived in (and owned) when she was a child. She remembers it as grimy, badly partitioned into flats and in a poor area. It sold last year for just shy if two million. Shame it passed out of the family in 1954.

one of the main reasons I went back to work after the kids was to be able to afford a cleaner. It is bliss. And there are still loads of jobs left over for the kids, I mean me and DH, to do.

What a miserable OP!
As well as my very full time job, I'm doing a Masters in my 'spare' time. I don't think that's sending a 'bad message' to my DCs.
Loosen those judgey pants!

I've had a cleaner for years and love it. You'd better sit down, OP, because she also does our ironing...

We both work full time. We both dislike cleaning. He has lower standards than I do, so inevitably I would end up doing most of it if we tried to do it ourselves. We can afford it at the moment and it means my cleaner has some extra money to spend on herself and her kids. I feel in no way that I should be apologetic for having a cleaner.

I don't want to clean my own house. I spent years doing that very thing while I had small children and an unhelpful husband. Nowadays I have the choice to do differently and I exercise that choice.

It's my money money, my house and my business. With respect.

I do respect the OP's choice not to have a cleaner though :)

LeQueen I am happy to do your jeans at the same time as Vivi's shoes. I can do them all at my full time job. Multi tasking so I have more time for lovely lovely cleaning when I get home. Oh so fulfilling :)

dublinmammy

Ah, I'd forgotten to admit to the gardener, hadn't I? That's me thrown into the Pit of Eternal Lazy Damnation.

We don't have the time and would rather be playing with the children, doing interesting things at the weekend rather than cleaning. We had a cleaner before children too.

What i need is a cook ! Oh to have delicious meals prepared for us all everyday.......and then a cleaner to do the cleaning up

Yes. We need to go further with this outsourcing idea. We haven't taken it as far as it should go.