"efficient guilt cleaning for working ladies" -- come and list everything that's wrong with this phrase

[HerdOfTinyElephants]

From the Yasmin Alibhai-Brown thread here.

I couldn't decide where to start...

What is "guilt cleaning"? Is my guilt dirty? Does it need cleaning? Do I need to employ a guilt cleaner?

I couldn't work out what she meant. I misread it at first as guilt about having cleaning ladies.
Maybe she means 'gilt cleaning'; I bet there is a thread on MN somewhere about the most efficient way for a working mum to clean her gilt.

If not, then there should be...

No no no, you've got it all wrong....its how working mums dust down their guilt complexes to keep them nice and shiny...

clean our guilt to make it shiny, or clean it away so it is no longer there?
For a top columnist she's not very good at expressing herself clearly, is she?

I wouyld dearly love as a full time working DW and DM to two teenagers who has no reason whatsoever to work buit do because I want to to be cleansed of all gulit. Guilt because I'm not here when thjey get hme, guilt because I like work, guilt because I clear more than 2K and it's mostly pin money, guilt because the house is never perfect, guilt becaus e I. Forget thiongs, guilt because the DC are fab and I'm not allowed to say it, guilt because I get tired and snap, guilt because I've a fridge full of food and those in East Africa haven't - guilt because I converted to Anglicanism because I felt too guilty about the paradoxes of catholocism. Need I go on.

Y A-B seems to be having a (longish) phase where she hasn't got much to say, but needs to keep on saying things. She used to be quite interesting, though.

I don't often feel guilty cos I work. I sometimes feel guilty at the sheer bloody relief of DS going into nursery, but mainly that's cos he's being a right little sod at the moment...

Nothing in my house is very clean. . . is this because of my lack of guilt? I will gladly feel guiltier if in return someone else does the kitchen floor and runs a hoover around.

Sorry to scupper your plan, blackcurrants but I find (paying) someone else to do the cleaning makes me feel less guilty, rather than more as I can sit at my desk smug happy in the knowledge that my dcs have clean bedrooms and my kitchen is no longer a festering breeding ground for bacteria....

Feeling guilty about paying someone to do the cleaning - WTF?
Why? Why?
Unless it's some kind of forced labour, why on earth should anyone feel guilty about employing someone else to do something useful?

I read this as 'quilt cleaning' and wondered why the feck anyone would be worrying about a quilt.

meh. I am always misreading 'guilt' as 'quilt' on MN because when it's underlined in a link it looks the same.
As a keen patchwork quilter I am frequently intrigued, then disappointed, by all the threads on the subject in the relationships topic.

Tchootnika - I spent a looong time once trying to persuade a leftie friend with a demanding job, kids and a very long commute that it was ok for her to have a cleaner. She had real reservations and I don't think she has one, even now. I cannot get my head round it at all.

I had a cleaner. She was ace. Never felt slightly guilty and when I movedaway we went out on the town together for a farewell celebration. . I miss her! In fact I must poke the budget and see if we can't get someone in this town. Even twice a month would be bliss..

I think the guilt re cleaners comes from the fact that you if you are left-wing and you hate cleaning, you may feel guilty about having enough to afford a cleaner in such an unequal society. You feel like you would be exploiting someone. I was a bit like that but eventually we got one as we weren't coping and she did a very good job and enjoyed it and took pride in her work so I didn't feel like I was exploiting more like I was sharing wealth.

It was the first time in my life I met someone who genuinely enjoys cleaning!

i have never had a minute guilt about working ft.i have a cleaner as i dont want to spend my weekends faffing doing domestic stuff. i also have a gardener and a window cleaner

if you are left-wing ..... you may feel guilty about having enough to afford a cleaner in such an unequal society

I know, I know, but in that case, why not share it out a bit? If you're that much of a thoughtful (and well off) leftie, you can always pay a bit over the odds, surely?

Or is that just my brassy nouveau riche roots talking?

(Someone help me out here, please, I never can get this pseudo-socialist 'look, we're so egalitarian, that's why our house is such a mess, but we won't help out someone who could do with the extra cash' thing.
)

I know! Just pay well and be a good employer! There's nothing demeaning about work per se so why should cleaning be any different?

that's how I feel, Syb

Had a lefty type try to lecture me about why getting a cleaner would be Oppressing The Masses once, at university. he was a bloke and I BET he doesn't do a fair share of cleaning now.

I just shrugged and said "It's not demeaning paying someone to dry clean my clothes or drive me somewhere in a taxi or pick out my shopping for me. Cleaning my house is different how exactly?"

He just muttered. Idiot.

Oh I agree with you now. It's just that having been there, I can understand the guilt complex.