Blue Cat

Agree parents deserve a break, that is why they are on holiday with their family, it should be family time not time with the hired help, most hotels have kids clubs and life guards

co durham boy

I thought chasing your kids round the pool was your holiday ?

NorthernLad

Hmmm...so when not on holiday the maid looks after the kids. When on holiday the maid looks after the kids

"Chasing kids around swimming pools is incredibly stressful.", that is priceless.

If parents are so much in need of these breaks maybe they should have thought about that before having children.

NorthernLad

Are you for real???

Blue Cat

agree with you, I loved chasing Mitten round a pool, all part of Motherhood

Blue Cat

she does say she is a bit LaLa

LaLaLayla

Yep, 'fraid so .

LaLaLayla

Yes, but to be fair, you've only got the one. Most families have at least 2 kids. Some parents are quite happy for their kids to just run around and do their own thing, unfortunately (or fortunately) I am not that kind of parent. I would want my kids to be supervised. If that means drafting in an extra pair of hands, then what's the big deal?

commander

Why did you have more than one?

lullabelle

You don't really need a maid in the uk as childcare is more readily available: childminders, after school nannies, after school clubs, often family and friends who will step in when there are emergencies. It means that working parents like me and my husband can have quality childcare by professionals, a relatively clean house (it's not me that messes it us every day, trust me) and happy, well looked after children.

None of that was easily available in the UAE to me - you could get a maid but so many of them are not capable of looking after children properly.

I have no problem with people having home help - but maids ARE used as accessories and status symbols in the UAE and don't we all know those expats who do this. Taking them home to the UK on a summer holiday is a great big wank. When I came home last year for a holiday, I hardly saw my kids anyway. They were off with various relatives and old frfiends who were desperate to have time with them.

Anyway, my holidays are family time. I love being on holiday with my kids. It's my time to play, be silly, swim in the pool with them, go kayaking... Just be a total part of their lives for a couple of weeks. Mine never want to go the kid's clubs, they want to be with us. Which I take as a giant compliment. In a couple of years they will be desperate to stay away away from us so I'd better make the most of it now and I do.

Surely one of the main reasons to have a maid is to help with housework which you don't really have on holiday?

(I've just asked them what they want to do when we go camping in France: go to the kid's club, take our childminder to look after them or be with us... They said be with us. Now that wasn't a scientific study, but I really believe kids prefer being with their family up to a certain age)

auzdafluff

Yup. Though there will be exceptions who see the maid as a member of the family and want to treat them by taking them to places they would otherwise never see.

Granted those are the exceptions rather than the rules, but it's nice to know there are at least some people out there like that.

LaLaLayla

What a ridiculous [and unnecessarily personal] question.

al dente

I have a maid that i've taken to the UK with me for the summer and to KL.

This was as a) she wanted to come and b) I often fly without my husband and have three small children. I'm not even allowed on a plane for another 5 months without an adult. (Can't have two kids under two with one adult).

As we're a troop of people, i always rent a house so don't impose on others and it means I have someone I absolutely trust to look after the smallest ones, while i can go out to my friend's houses for dinner etc. My mates don't seem to use babysitters very often and, if I want to see them, I tend to go to them. She also gets paid UK minimum wage, which is more than here, so she saves and she gets to see the sights of London. I also find her a local catholic church to go to, which she loves though it's tesco that has her rhapsodising.

Mind you, I was also brought up an expat so have always had full time help in the home, except for when I was a student!

al dente

We also take a maid to hotels here because a) again they want to come b) we need two rooms as we're a family of 5 and rather than split us up she sleeps with two of the kids and we keep one. It means that we've got someone who we trust to babysit and, if it gets too hot, we can stay in the pool and play with the older ones while the baby can sleep in the room comfortably.

We would never tell someone they had to come, we always ask. TBH, I think they like to get stuck into all the food!

LaLaLayla

Watch out Al Dente - you might find yourself jailed under Commander's One-Child Policy