Middleclass problems – The Final Chapter

I promise to stop boring you with the whole domestic saga after this post.

We bid our lady a not-so-fond farewell yesterday when she decided that she would rather just leave than go through the disciplinary meeting I had arranged for her with 48 hours notice.  I actually called the CCMA helpline yesterday just to make sure I had my facts straight. If you need to chat to them you can reach them on 0861 16 16 16.  They aren’t very friendly, but I guess they get a lot of irate Afrikaans ladies that call.  Whatever.

The final straw was when Etienne checked our wine supply, only to realise that all our special and sentimental wines such as export wine from our wedding and wine we bought for the kids as well as a bottle of whisky were gone.  He doesn’t get mad easily, but he was rather pissed off about that and so was I.

So, moving along.

This now gives us an opportunity to re-evaluate what our needs are as a family as having domestic help is important to us with both of us working full-time and having three kids who need to have clean clothes every so often.

We think it is better to have someone live in as we have to skedaddle out of the house by 7h30 in the morning and knowing the reliability of the public transport system we would like to limit everyone’s stress as far as possible.

BUT. We need our alone-time with our children on weekends and appreciate that someone might have their own family close-by that they would like to see.

So I’m curious, what, if any, are your cleaning arrangements?  Here’s a little poll, I hope I covered everything..

If I’ve left anything out or you have any suggestions, I appreciate it as always.  I have specifically not added in anything about Nannies that have dual duties, but I know that a lot of us have either been there or are there now.

Ps: I’m feeling a little dragged-backwards-through-bush-tired-and-fragile today.  3 nights of little sleep has caught up to me, rounded off by Mignon and a croup attack last night. Followed by a nebbing session and dunking her in bed with us.  Followed by her playing with my hair, sticking her fingers up my nose and so on and so forth.  You get the picture.

9 thoughts on “Middleclass problems – The Final Chapter”

  1. Gosh this sounds like a horrid experience 🙁

    Josephine is firstly Jacks nanny and secondly age cleans – she comes in daily. If we had space then we would have a live in domestic.

    Chat to Celeste when you have made a decision and she can help you find someone suitable.

  2. Stunning new pic of the kids … They look so happy … U must be doing it right!!!!!!
    Regards
    Collette Merritt

  3. Im sorry you had to go thorugh this 🙁

    Our lady, Aletta, works Monday to Friday, she lives in the cottage on our property. She goes home early (half day) one friday a month and comes back on the Sunday night so she is back at work on the Monday. She works an 8 hour day.

    We have a proper employment contract with her and she earns proper over time for any baby sitting she does outside of her working hours.

    She gets sick leave and annual leave.

    That being siad, between the two of us we are both very flexible and help each other out if she needs to go home moer than once a month or if I need her to work slightly odd hours (ie over a lunch time or something like that).

  4. and i thought i had problems when mine stole all my ideas and ran off to open her own cake business in the next village. sadly, i now clean my own house. (but no kids yet just hairy dogs!)

  5. Love your new picture!

    And now I’m intrigued by the high percentage of people who answered ‘Other’ … what is that? Their husband cleans?
    Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha aha.
    Sorry.

    Have a restful weekend!

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