Mi casa es …. clean!

I’m feeling very spoiled. I have a wonderful cleaning lady who comes twice a week to make my house sparkling. I have never lived in such a clean place. A year ago when we moved into our new casa I tentatively thought about getting a cleaner. With a 4 year old hurricane and another bub on the way, I thought I could probably justify the luxury. Plus I was told that the feeling here is that if you can afford to hire domestic help you should do so, in order to support those less fortunate who are keen to work. You can’t argue with that, can you? Getting a cleaning lady is the noble thing to do, right?

I generally practice the “a little bit of dirt won’t hurt you” style of parenting - in other words, I am a hopeless cleaner and therefore have extremely low standards when it comes to someone else cleaning my house. I am just so thrilled that I am not doing it myself! When I was a part-time working mother of one in Australia we had a cleaner who came once a fortnight and it felt very indulgent, but I also used it to justify doing very little cleaning in between visits.

I’m concerned though, that I could really get used to this spotless house business. How will I ever go back to cleaning a bathroom, or even cleaning my own car? (They have these fantastic car washes that cost US$6 for a full clean, inside and out!) I’m all for embracing the local customs, but going home will be a crash back to reality.

Continuing on from my “Becoming Mexican” theme, it’s perhaps not surprising how many expats I know have adopted the Mexican cleaning lady/maid/nanny habit. I am definitely in the minority, having a cleaner only twice a week. More commonly, the expat families and the more affluent Mexican families will have a full time or live in maid, who doubles as a nanny. Now, I’m the last person to criticize the working mother who’s best or preferred childcare option is a nanny, but I just don’t understand the women who have a live in maid when they are home with the kids. Imagine how they will have to adjust when they go home or move to the next posting and domestic help is not so affordable or available. One lady I know took her Mexican nanny back to the US with her - talk about the ultimate souvenir!

There are definitely days when I wish I had someone else in the house to keep an eye on the kids so that ducking out to the shops was an easy thing to do, but I don’t think I could cope with having someone else in the house all the time. Maybe I’m just overprotective about these things, and I certainly don’t think “I’m the only person who could possibly know how to raise children”, but I really don’t like the idea of someone else being a mother to my kids. I’m not saying its the woman’s place to look after the kids or that you’re cheating if you get help, but its just not for me. I think this is one way we’ll be staying Australian.