The urge to have maids seems to have been part of the Arab culture in the Gulf. Why do we in the Gulf need to have full-time housemaids living with us 24 hours a day and seven days a week? There must be a deeper reason for this! Could it be that our men are too demanding or our women too lazy? Even if the family has more than four or five children to help in household chores, there is always that need for a babysitter or a cleaner to work for us more than eight hours a day. And not only one housemaid is needed to do all the chores, which include cleaning, baby sitting, cooking and God knows what else? The dependency on maids often leave housewives to become lazy, bored and bossy. I believe the housemaid culture in the Gulf should be given one close look and organize the duties of housemaids to make them work just like anyone else working in an office. Each morning, they head to their work and stay with her employer for eight hours to perform. They go either as a cleaner or a baby sitter. They used home to live with their peers or relatives with whom they live with. This will give them enough time to rest, sleep and live as other people do. They are human beings who need a community to live with, one which shares a common culture, habits, food and traditions of the countries where they come from. They should be allowed to assimilate with kith and kin to live normal lives. That cannot be done if they are working and living 24 hours a day and seven days a week with families with which they don't share a common culture, social norms, traditions and beliefs. That will restrict their rights and sense of freedom. Making a domestic help live happily with her own community will enhance her performance and curb negative behaviors and tendencies that could become a problem not only for her but also for the family with which she works. Making housemaids or nannies work only eight hours a day will also encourage many of us to do household chores ourselves when the maids and the nannies go home to rest, cook their own food and live normal lives among her kith and kin. We should not allow laziness to make us forever dependent on domestic helpers. Picking up household chores and feel the difficulties of cleaning the house, washing our own clothes and taking care of our own children will make us realize that domestic helpers also need to rest. It will make us understand that they are also human beings and not machines that could work nonstop up to the wee hours of the night. That will help improve our relationship with them and reduce problems what could arise from misunderstanding and tensions. Realistic writer, Jeddah
