To be confused as to why hiring a cleaner is seen as an indulgence?

[Gahr]

This is something that I see time and again on this site, and it is SO WEIRD. People seem to think that it is the height of luxury to have a housecleaner, and also seem to be strangely apologetic about it, offering disclaimers as to why they need one. Also, I've noticed that on threads when someone has a problem with their cleaning service, they will get several posts telling them to 'clean their own house'. Nobody would tell someone to 'service their own boiler' or 'fix their own toilet'! I don't understand it at all. I have a cleaner and I wouldn't be without her.

If men had historically been the ones expected to do most of the housework, hiring a cleaner would be seen as essential.

No, I don't. You are the one who is always posting under different names. I have reported you numerous times and MN does nothing.

Unless your cleaning raises your heart rate to 160+bpm for an hour I will stick to my proper exercise. Ambling about doing some cleaning is better than not moving for those who are entirely sedentary but it’s not exercise. I don’t even get out of breath cleaning.

Attention seeking then. Im
convinced it’s Lady C

It would be a luxury for many people, heating your home, having basic nourishing food, warm clothes and shoes that are not worn out are essentials. Everything else is a luxury, if not necessarily luxurious. Personally, I would struggle with someone else in my house doing the cleaning and having access to all my personal stuff. Which is why being a royal of being filthy rich would not benefit me much. I could afford a cleaner easily but I remember being a child in a household where it would have been a luxury well beyond us.

How do you work that out? Holidays are holidays.

I’d love one but I don’t think we can afford it and I couldn’t bear my awful sneering SIL if she realised I had one .
I do the best I can in the house and that’s it

Genuine question - what things are seen as luxuries in todays day and age?

For me it’s being able to afford a cleaner, a gardener, someone to do your ironing. And one of those robot hoovers :0)

I guess, for me, at a basic level, a luxury is anything non essential but sometimes the value is small and thus they dont seem "luxurious" eg buying a coffee or a new lipstick.

Also once something becomes an ingrained or regular habit, it almost "disappears" or morphs into a state of normality without it really being considered as a luxury (subscriptions, regular cleaner, weekly takeaway etc) - where as a one off, expensive or more sporadic "treat" is more obvious as a luxury eg a holiday, a weekend away, an extravagant shopping spree etc.

I mean, this absolutely. During the Great Depression, there was something called the Lipstick Effect. People couldn't afford big ticket items but they could afford little treats like lipstick.

Only wealthy people buy takeaways, get their hair coloured and go on holiday too.
What's your point?

Says this OP!

I have one, but I am not wealthy. I'm middle class.

@Dreamlava So you don't have a cleaner, then?

Why such aggression?

Its clear from this thread that having a cleaner is normal and non-indulgent for YOU.
For others, it is the opposite.

The area of conflict is that this is confusing to you. Surely, you understand that different people view it differently? There’s nothing to be confused about?

typo

Sorry, but @Dreamlava is a recurring poster who posts under a lot of different usernames with the same MO. It's my bad for being drawn into their nonsense. Once you see it you can't unsee it. They have a pattern of using the same words again and again, and harping on and on about the same point.

I mean, that's exactly what you've done on this thread though? So how is it different?

It's because us women are supposed to be doing it as well as everything else.

There's some sort of weird morality here about women who don't clean their own homes and pay other people to do it.

I have a cleaner, I consider it a luxury. In the current climate I consider any disposable income a luxury and feel very fortunate that we have enough to be able to afford a cleaner

I don't post under a lot of different usernames, though. Dreamlava is DARVOing when they say I do. I'm not the only person to notice their MO, although I may be the only one to point it out on this thread. They do the same on many other threads as well, and have done for months and months. I have reported them many times.