Kids at work

For the last two months, my maid has been bringing her 15-year old daughter to ‘help her’. While the maid does the dishes, her daughter sweeps and mops the house.

To say her work is lousy is a bit of an understatement. Often, she even forgets basic things like turning the fan off before starting to sweep a room. As for changing the water after doing a couple of rooms – why should she when she doesn’t even dip the mop cloth in the water more than once per room?

Everytime I see her work (which thankfully, isn’t often), I am tempted to tick her off. Yet, I don’t because she is still a kid, and I feel guilty about making her work at all. Technically, it is not me that is making her work, it is her own mother, but I feel guilty all the same.

And yet, I cannot really tell the mother I do not want her working in my place, because it is the mother’s prerogative to make her work or not.

So there I am feeling guilty about making a child clean my house, gritting my teeth at her shoddy work, and feeling miserable and angry everytime my foot hits the dirty floor.

Am I glad the schools have finally reopened, and I don’t have to deal with this issue any longer. At least, I hope not – the mother could still ask her daughter to help on weekends and holidays, which are the only days when I really meet either of them.

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