Special Mom’s blog

Growing up in India, we had household help. Not a stay in maid service. But a mother and daughter duo who would come help clean vessels, wash our clothes, mop and dry our living quarters every day. Some times the sister or her kids would drop by and help if they could not make it. This was for a very nominal amount. They would drop us off at school safely and the first year of our full day school, they would bring our lunch and even feed us and see to it that we finished it off. All this was taken for granted by me until I came to US nearly 26 years ago.

I learnt this manual labor is not cheap here. I had machines to help me but that was not enough . So when my second kid was born, my neighbor suggested that I have a maid. We were in a townhouse and she used to drop by once a month and clean our homes. That is when I understood why that was expensive. Her trip once a month made our house clean. I also had to clean or put away things before she came (because they would not lift anything up). That added to the cleanliness 😊.

After moving to Pittsburgh from Boston we thought we would be able to manage without maid service. We were so wrong. My house became a mess. My husband’s sciatic nerve problem became an issue and I think around 2015 or 2016 we decided, we needed maid service. I made an executive decision of having them come twice a month. Yes, this was a big piece in our budget. Clean home and our health mattered more than a vacation or an investment.

We now have professional cleaners coming in every alternate week. So I sometimes would have 3 visits a month. The price for the service has skyrocketed. We did not even stop services during pandemic and ours are now at a all time high. But my bathrooms look decent and floors are not bad. We have less dust. We live in a fifty year old home. We have a special boy who can sometimes make a mess. So the service is necessary for our family. Yes, with the current price I could call them luxury but that is more of a need than a want.

We also have people to mow our lawns, which can be called a luxury. With my husband’s back and our constant work with our special boy we do not have time or energy to do our lawns on our own.

So yes, domestic help is one luxury that our family cannot live without.