Life without maids and helpers

Life without maids and helpers

As the annual exodus of people returning to their hometowns
during the Idul Fitri begins, many middle and upper income
families start having headaches. Their housemaids, cooks, baby
sitters, drivers are on leave, forcing the family to do the
household chores. How could you survive without domestic helpers?
asks The Jakarta Post's contributor Tri Hafiningsih.

JAKARTA (JP): The long holidays have just started. Everybody
is getting ready to enjoy the coming celebrations: Christmas,
Idul Fitri and New Year.

Imagine a week full of parties and family gatherings. What a
joy. But then imagine the dirty plates and glasses, and all the
mess. Oh no!

We are unfamiliar with the endless household chores like doing
the dishes, laundry, cooking, housecleaning, or taking out the
garbage and taking care of the children. And why should we bother
with all these chores? We have maids, cooks, baby sitters,
drivers, gardeners and even satpam (security guards). But now
they are all away for the long holiday.

We know the risks and responsibilities of the annual ritual.
We face the same problem every year. It would only last for two
or three weeks but since we had not been doing these chores, we
cannot cope without our domestic helpers longer than that.

As for Nanies, for example, the helpers are "part of the
household system." She has had the luxury of having a family of
four as her helpers, and a driver that has worked for them for
years. Salamah, her husband Pak Nana, daughter Lis, and niece Lia
are the second and third generations of helpers in the family.

Her husband Djamal Kamal, who owns a factory and designs
furniture, prefers more privacy with "not too many people
around." But for the family living in a spacious house on the
2,000 square-meter land in Condet, East Jakarta, life without
helpers would probably be out of the question.

Another couple with three young children consider maids and
baby sitters as their substitutes when they are at work. "Without
them, I simply can't work," said Mulyati, who conducts math
courses in her home in Cawang, East Jakarta.

Tradition

We still maintain the tradition of having the pembantu
(helper) though it is sometimes difficult to fit them in more
"modern" domiciles like apartments.

For the Imaldi Agoestian family who lives in an apartment in
South Jakarta, two maids and a driver are the norm.

Imaldi and his wife Ninik are both employed. They simply
cannot leave their five and nine-year-old daughters by themselves
during office hours. So the two maids take care of the girls
along with all the cooking and cleaning chores, while the driver
drives the children to and from school in their family van.

There should be a well-designed schedule to follow during the
temporary absence of helpers. Some families make their hometown-
bound trips during their maids' annual absence.

Salamah and her family would make the necessary preparations
for the Kamal family before they go on their annual leave to
Sukabumi, West Java. It would be more work than usual. The
preparations would include cooking several day's meals, as well
as for the Idul Fitri celebration, putting them in containers,
and storing them in the freezer. Pak Nana would have to do the
overall cleaning of the house and its yard.

For the other helpers, the preparations would also mean
washing the curtains, bedsheets, and cleaning the windows,
ceilings, garage and storeroom.

When their two house maids are on leave Dina and Benny take
turns in doing the washing, cleaning and caring for the children.

Kusuma prefers to postpone the "hard work" such as the
cleaning and the laundry until the helpers are back. "As for
dinner, the easier task, we dine out," she said.

New jobs

Most of us can afford domestic helpers because their salaries
are quite low. There is no standard salary for a domestic help.
In fact there are no regulations on the rights of domestic
helpers and obligations of the employers. There is also no
working contract to sign. Even if there were one, not all will be
able to sign it because many of them are illiterate.

While the minimum labor wage for Jakarta is Rp 344,257 a month
(it will be raised to Rp 426,250 effective Jan 1, 2000), a house
maid generally receives between Rp 150,000 and Rp 300,000 a
month. Some employers treat the domestic helpers as part of the
family and provide them with their daily necessities - from
toothpaste and soaps to clothes and sanitary napkins and also a
decent room and proper food. But many housemaids have to buy the
basic needs themselves, sleep on the floor and eat the employers'
leftovers.

House maids have no fixed working hours. It all depends on the
employer's goodwill. But generally they work long hours, from
dawn, before the employer wakes up, till late at night, after the
children have gone to bed. They also have to work seven days a
week.

Many of the helpers who are satisfied and accept the working
conditions would return to their jobs after the annual leave. But
many more would look for better "opportunities" like working for
families who promise higher salaries, or become factory workers,
shop attendants, seamstresses or tailors as these are more
promising jobs (though not necessarily higher paying).

Murni said she decided to find another job because as a
housemaid, she did not have time for herself.

"I want to work in a factory, so that I can have time to hang
around," she said.

Replacement

What would happen if our maids did not return to work? We
would look for others to replace them. "Otherwise we would be in
trouble," many of us would say.

In a panic, we would try every possible way to find suitable
replacements. We would try to call family and friends to know if
they have "spare" maids to work for us, or we would call labor
agents to know if they have someone available.

If we are really lucky (it seldom happens, unfortunately), the
new maid(s) would be available.

Then we have to cope with problems concerning the new maids.
Some of us are familiar with newcomers who stay only for a few
weeks or even a few days. They will say that they can't stay, and
leave.

And there is the "freshman" type. This is the first time that
they are away from their villages, so as they are really new on
the job and they cannot seem to do anything right. Though they
would accept a low salary and stay on longer, we would probably
lose our patience of having them around.

It takes a mountain of patience to teach someone who does not
understand that mopping also means cleaning the floor. "They just
mop the floor, or wash the clothes. They don't clean them,"
commented Mortiara, who had to face this ordeal several times
before getting an experienced maid.

But what could you expect from a maid who lives in the village
and in a bamboo house without cement flooring? Perhaps, they had
never seen ceramic tiles before, let alone, gas stoves,
refrigerators or microwaves.

With all these problems, would you prefer to live without
maids?

Benny admitted he could not imagine a family life without
helpers. "For two or three months? Maybe. We've gone through
that. But permanently? I don't know," he said.

It will be a long time before we will be ready to face
household chores without a feeling of desperation that the maids
have not returned or that there are no replacements too.

Maids and helpers are certainly an important part of our
household. Family life without maids or helpers? Of course it is
possible, but not in the near future.