Would you keep your cleaner if you were on maternity leave?

[bgt]

I am on mat leave till September, we have a cleaner every week for 2 hours at £8 p/h. My dh thinks that I should be doing the cleaning whilst on mat leave and also to save money. Any others out there in my position :)

tell him to fuck off, you are on maternity leave not 'cleaning the house' leave

I've never had a cleaner and we live in a tiny flat but DP is actually keen to get one in periodically for when I'm heavily pg and, perhaps once a week, for a couple of weeks after the birth so that I don't feel too pressured to clean.

Keep keep keep or you may not get her back, also is so hard to clean when heavily pregnant or if you have c section etc.

I had my baby in November via c section so am up and about and doing more. My eldest is also in nursery 3 days a week, so another reason why dh thinks I can clean as my ds is not around.

small point cycle - lovely as your husband's gesture sounds, he could just do the cleaning himself.

Tell him he can do the housework when he comes in from work if he feels so strongly about it.

Just tell him that you are happy to sack the cleaner and you are very happy that he will be taking over all ten cleaning from about 8 months until a month or so after the birth. Oh and the cook. And the washing.

I am a sahm and have a cleaner. If you need the money then you both should do it. If you don't then he needs to understand that it will be a joint job for several months.

god yes, if i had one.
in fact, it's only since being on mat leave with dd2 that i've been wistfully eyeing the cards in the newsagents, and trying to work out if i can stretch to one too.

I had a cleaner through my mat leave periods.

Second time round we were more comfortable, financially, so it wasn't an issue. First time round things were a bit tighter so we had a clean done once a fortnight and I just dusted, hoovered, used bathroom wipes etc in between.

I took the view that I didn't buy take-away, convenience food etc as I had a little extra time for nice cooking, and so the overall spend evened out.

The cooking/takeaway thing is also our rationale. Money's not infinite for us either but I hat cleaning and am crap at it, whereas I'm a good cook and enjoy it.

I did. kept me sane.

Yes! I am a SAHM and have a cleaner. In 2 hours a week she gets the "basics" done, but with small children there is constant cleaning, washing etc. Also as you will be in the house a lot more you'll find that you spend a lot of time just doing routine cleaning up after yourself. If you possibly can, keep the cleaner so that at least you know the bathrooms etc are getting a good clean once a week. Obviously people manage just fine without cleaners, but it does make life a bit easier.

In fact I only got my cleaner whilst I was on Mat Leave!

I initially only wanted her whilst I was poorly before giving birth, however it has made such a diffence to how I feel I have kept her on.

I had an emergency C-Sections too last November, and I am nearly well (Following a pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, and post partum cardio myopthy...but thats another thread!)

Moneys tight, but I would rather do without other things than the cleaner, it just stops it all getting over-whelming, and takes so much presure off you, which is disproportionate to the actual amount of time your cleaner is here/costs.

If you need to save money, can you find another way of doing it eg cancel his Sky Sports sub?

I don't have a cleaner - though am thinking about getting one when I go back to work when DC2 (now 7.5 months) is 10 months old.

As I see it now DC2 is older and (finally!) napping in the day I do have time in the week to do some cleaning/ironing etc that would otherwise be done at the weekend. However this extra time is offset to a large degree by the extra mess/dishes created by having more people home in the day.

TBH the only consideration I would make re retaining your cleaner whilst on mat leave would be

a) cost when you are (presumably) one wage down - however look at other other areas to save eg franke's suggestion above

b) whether you will find it intrusive to have someone coming into your home when you are home and possiby wanting to rest in the day after a bad night.

Thanks guys....will keep her :)

the only time I have ever had a cleaner is just after I gave birth (both times). A friend said 'it's a cleaner or a shrink' so I went for the cheapest option.

Your DH is mad. The only time I would have killed for a cleaner is when I was a new mother. She will save your sanity and possibly your marriage. Hope he is willing to cough up for her.

Keep her if you can if she is good - absolutely worth the money especially when baby arrives. For the price of a round of drinks or two I would!

Having a cleaner is not so much about cleaning really but more about domestic harmony...

I'm going to try and explain that statement:
When I lived alone in a small flat, I could take a couple of hours and my flat would be sparkling. It was all made by me, so I didn't begrudge cleaning it and I actually didn't get particularly grossed out by it either since it was all my own mess, so it wasn't that essential to clean it regularly, only when the cat started picking up dust bunnies!

Then I married DH and he generated his mess too, and we got a cleaner because HIS mess is gross whereas mine is simply life happening.

And then there's the mess which seems to get generated just by having more people in the house.... I'm sure some of it's mine, but I secretly suspect that I am cleaning up other people's mess and being made into some sort of martyr due to the fact that my mess tolerance level is about 8,000 leagues lower than his, so I always cave in before him and then begrudge doing it.

Hence the cleaner is not about spending 2 hours a week cleaning, it is about you not feeling agrieved about tidying up after him.

Explain to your DH that you'll be a lot nicer to him if the cleaner stays - and really less than £20/week for domestic harmony? I'd say it's a bargain!

Does anyone know where I could get a cleaner in north London with no minimum? We have a tiny 1-bed and everyone seems to want to do min 3 hours. I don't want to pay for something we don't need. 2 hours max. any suggestions? thanks.

I know you've made your decision now, but juts wanted to underline what RoadCraftGuri and Northerngirl hit on: exactly: maternity leave is when there will be more mess, as everyone is at home during the day!

And it's worth considering that (a) time spent cleaning is not time spent with the child(ren) - which is surely part of the purpose of maternity leave, and (b) cleaning is only efficient if it is carrie dout without interruption. By delegating cleaning to someone who will have to stop literally every few minutes to check on/help/comfort someone, the cleaning task will take literally tens or hundreds of times longer. I am not exaggerating, as you only have to think about what needs to be done to mop a kitchen floor:

• sort laundry
• put laundry on
• put breakfast away
• do dishes
• sweep floor
• repeat sweeping because things fudged up again before mopping could commence
• shoo child(ren) out
• keep child(ren) out
• intervene in all child(ren) related problems while they are out of reach
• mop floor
• intervene with child(ren) again
• clean up massive spill from mop bucket, because you didn't get to it before child(ren)
• put mop away
• keep child(ren)n out of kitchen until floor is dry.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. Cleaners don't have that sort of extra work, so they are far more efficient.

Disclaimer: I would like a cleaner!