It's a Maid's Life

It's not easy being somebody's domestic helper.

Working for low wages (relative in our context, of course), no off-days, no friends, located far away from your loved ones, no work recognition to look fwd to, no career prospects to speak of, blah blah blah... Not forgetting to mention, the unlucky ones get subjected to abuse by employers who think they have hired slaves.

As I observe my IL's new maid going about her never-ending mundane chores everyday, I count my blessings for where I am now.

Her daily schedule looks something like this:

Morning

(Breakfast)

Serve breakfast to FIL and SIL

Get matriarch ready for elderly daycare

Escort matriarch downstairs to wait for "school bus"

Collect soiled clothings for soaking

General housekeeping - Make beds, tidy rooms, wipe open surfaces, furniture, photo frames and other miscellaneous objects

Load and run washing machine

Prepare meimei's porridge using slow cooker

Vaccum and mop floor

Collect washed clothings and hang them out to dry

Clean and wash toilets (weekly)

Afternoon

(Lunch)

Iron and fold (mountains of) clean clothes

Wash and dry dishes

Do ad-hoc chores e.g. clean kitchen cupboards, pluck tau-gay, peel and chop onions/garlic etc.

Fetch matriarch downstairs

(Rest/Standby)

Night

Help with dinner preparation (mainly the cleaning-up part)

Serve matriarch dinner

(Dinner)

Wash and dry dishes

Mop kitchen floor

(Rest/Standby)

Clean dining table

Give medicine to matriarch and help her to bed

(Sleep)

As you can see, a maid's life is super boring and their whole world revolves around the house they work in (until some get their hands on mobile phones, that is.)

My IL's maid already has her hands full with the chores listed above and I really wonder how the other maids cope with additional chores like marketing, cooking and caring for young children etc. I seriously take my hat off them.

So when the going gets tough, it's not a dog's life. It's a maid's life.