We´ve finally hired a gardener for the house and what a luxury it is to have someone come for two hours and clean everything outside. It´s really inexpensive to hire help in Mexico and although I feel a little weird about it, it is actually considered stingey not to hire someone so hey why not. Apparently it´s viewed by the neighbors and the and the hired help that you want to keep all of your money for yourself if you don´t hire someone, especially if you are a "rich" european or american expat.
The gardener really impressed me. He cuts the lawn, trims the hedges, waters all the grass (ours is perpetually dead) and even has offered to replace dead hedges and plants. He does this all for about ten dollars a week. This week he spent about two hours on our yard and it isn´t a big yard by any means. My only complaint was that he blew all the dead grass in the swimming pool and it took me over an hour to clean it out. If he keeps doing that then the time saved by him doing our yard work is wasted because I spend all this time fishing out leaves and grass.
We are thinking of hiring a cleaning person two days a week too. It´s also very common practice and costs very little for us, --about 15 dollars a day but of course you are usually expected to hire this person for a full week. I wasn´t really wanting someone in our house so often because my one and only experience with a cleaning person ended in me and my ex boyfriend planting a secret camera on top of an armoire in the bedroom and catching her on tape rifling through my underwear drawer and our medicine cabinet! I´d been suspecting things were missing and I had reason to think so. Now I´m very reluctant to have anyone in my house but Seb is interested in getting his clothes ironed and he unfortunately has an American wife and not a French one (we don´t iron).
Maids and gardeners...I´m feeling like a character in The Remains of The Day.
Updated to add that the gardner never stays two hours anymore. Now that we´re on his roster he stays about half an hour at best and he definitely does not do weeds. It´s still a pretty good deal but he doesn´t show up for weeks at a time. Alas bienvenido! This is Mexico after all!
6 comments:
We have a gardener too for the same price and he does a great job (no pool here so at least we don´t have to worry about that). I struggled with the maid concept too, although we have someone recommended by a friend so I was pretty sure she´d be trustworthy. I agree with you about the attitude that if you can afford a maid you should have one to share the wealth, which I guess is a good idea. I still feel so guilty when I´m here and she´s cleaning. The neighbours probably think I am stingey only having her come 2 mornings a week, but I couldn´t cope having someone in my house more than that.
We have someone clean for us once a week. It is SO nice to have someone else clean. I wish I'd had someone when my kids were small and I was working three jobs.
Anyway, it is an interesting perspective you've shown us. I say go for the maid. Why not? :-)
I love reading your experiences in Mexico, it brings back memories of living in less-developed countries. Funny how it's the same everywhere.
I had the same issues with a maid,but at the time she came with the flat. I learned to LOVE it. When I came back to the US it wasn't feasible and besides I didn't mind cleaning, until I had a baby. After a year of not getting anything cleaned (in our constantly under renovation so there's dirt/dust everywhere house), I finally gave in and hired a cleaning lady. She only comes 1x every 2 weeks to do the major stuff, but she's a godsend. I bet if I can get her to iron DH's shirts, he'd be willing to pay her to come more often. Alas, though she's Mexican, she's a little more expensive...
Guera - I think we´ll just keep it at two days a week. Now we just have to try to find someone which is the hard part.
Alison - there are so many maids and day workers coming into our neighborhood in the morning it looks like a triathalon!
Cherise - I see myself becoming spoiled!
You mean I'm not supposed to be ironing my Italian husband's shirts? Why did I not get that issue of the newsletter for American expat wives?
At least now I know I can put my foot down.
We had someone helping with the housework but she was stealing too. My clothing and family heirlooms (jewelry). I still haven't had the nerve to get another one although I could use the help.
Jennifer I remember your story and it brought back some unpleasant memories for me. I´m still missing some jewelry but it wasn´t until a year afterwards that I noticed it was gone. I´m going to be more careful this time.
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