A year ago, I found myself on the phone lamenting to my sister back home about how sad I was to be losing my nanny.
Written by: Laura Fulton
I’d have to rely on part time nursery school for my only childcare, I wailed, and I’d actually have to do my own housework for the first time since moving to Abu Dhabi nearly eight years ago. I was forgetting, of course, that between looking after her own kids and doing all her own housework and laundry, my sister also works a full time job. She’s never had a maid or a nanny, and while she didn’t actually say the words “you lazy cow”, her palpable silence was enough to remind me that I’ve had a pretty good run during my stint in the UAE.
On the other hand, while I’m the only I person I know among my friends and family back home to have ever had a maid or nanny, I’m also the only person I know in Abu Dhabi who doesn’t. Thinking it would be a good way to save money and build character, I decided upon doing my own housework, despite the urgings of my fellow expats to at least hire someone part time.
The plan was that I would do my writing work in the mornings while my children were at nursery school and then spend the afternoons looking after the house while looking after the kids at the same time.
A year has gone by and I now find I spend my days running. It seems every morning brings some new household emergency that takes me into town so that, more often than I’d like, my afternoons are spent trying to keep the kids entertained while I sit at the computer working, a scenario that generally ends in disaster. I gave them muffins the other day, hoping to buy myself another half hour. By the time I emerged from my office, I discovered that the children had covered the house in an even layer of crumbs.
It has finally occurred to me why it is my sister is so much better at keeping it all in hand. While she doesn’t have a maid, she does have a dishwasher that only needs the push of a button to clean what would take an hour for me to wash by hand. She also has a clothes dryer, so most of her clothes come out ready for wearing—all the clothes I take from the drying rack are currently sitting in a pile the size of Mount Kilimanjaro waiting for me to find the time to iron them. Furthermore, she can vacuum her entire house of carpeted floors in the same amount of time it takes me to sweep and mop one room of my house.
Who’s the lazy cow? Neither of us – I don’t begrudge my sister her conveniences. But after a year of barely keeping my head above water, I’ve now built enough character for an entire troop of Boy Scouts. It’s either time to hire some help or go shopping and get some appliances of my own.
