Keeping a Housekeeper

I just finished watching the Japanese drama "Kaseifu no Mita". The drama is about a housekeeper named Mita Akari. She is a skilled housekeeper but she seems distant. She doesn't interact so much with the people she works for. I found the drama amazing. I've never seen such a drama. It was very heartwarming. Never was there an episode that I did not shed a tear. Besides, it starred one of my favorite actresses, Matsushima Nanako, enough reason to watch it.

I was told before that hiring a housekeeper is not really common in Japan because it's expensive. On the contrary, keeping a housekeeper in the Philippines is a usual thing even for average-earning families. There are two ways to hire a housekeeper in the Philippines; you can either get one from an agency or ask your friends to recommend someone to work for you. The former is common in the cities while the latter is often done in rural areas. 

My parents both had to work when I was young so we also had to hire a housekeeper. We were able to keep two at the same time. One of them did the babysitting of my brother and the other one took care of the household chores. Having them did not mean I was able to escape doing household chores, I still had to wash the dishes. Once, I secretly asked our housekeeper to wash them for me, but mom found out and I got punished in return.

One of them lived nearby so she went home every afternoon while the other stayed with us during the weekdays and only went home during the weekend.

Nowadays, housekeeper in rural areas earn around $50. In the city, they get around $75-$80. Of course, housekeepers are also covered by laws that protect them from abusive homeowners. I was often reminded by my mom to treat them well like they are members of the family, too. Mom hated it when we call them "yaya", a term often used to address housekeepers. We had to call them "ate" meaning older sister or "auntie".

I definitely would like to have a housekeeper now. Doing housework can be very tiring, but I can't afford getting one. I'm still waiting for my parents to give us a housekeeper. 

global warming. :P