Where does the deplorable culture of having housemaids despite being poor come from?

Khaemwaset

Früher of the Djibouti Ugaasate 🇩🇯
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We had one when i lived in Djibouti. But tbf it was a very large house we were renting during our stay there. I was the oldest sibling and only 11 12~ so we couldn't possible keep it all clean. If I lived in a 1-2 story house I wouldn't have a maid at all. It's not the norm for my extended family too and I've stayed at many houses in Djibouti.
 
Nah the only people who have maids in somalia are diaspora or wealthy. Even my family members back home never had a maid. Maybe 5 % of famlies have a maid.
 
When i was in Egypt our extended family that live there had a Maid, and she would come by at around noon help my aunt with cooking and cleaning and leave.

So i am assuming they are treated like an extra hand. I don't really see it as adoonsi replacement, i see it as a pathway for employment opportunities for those who have less, so that they can earn money.

Among Arabs it's treated differently, maids are not a helping hand or path of some employment scheme , it really is a replacement for adoonsi.
 
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I remember my maid, she pretended to be my long distance cousin and forced me n my sisters to help her clean our entire vacation...only when i left did i find out she was the goddamn MAID
 
it’s usually a way of giving a cousin a job, they don’t do much work and our maids would gossip and watch Indian movies with my mom and sisters.
 
Stop being silly. It’s mostly the upper middle classes. The average Somali wife has like 7 kids and a house bigger than the UK box houses with no man to help her. If she has the extra coins, of course it makes sense for her to get a bit of help.

Also, no those women aren’t just sitting around since they have lots of kids to keep them occupied.

Always find it funny seeing men complain about maids because the reason why is because the maid in their minds should be the wife. Somali men back home don’t help at all. They just get her pregnant and will be out of the house all day even if unemployed or aren’t working long hours. No man would comment about a bachelor man having a cleaner come in a few times a week despite being single but a mother of 7 having help is an issue because you see wives as maids who also gives birth to your kids.

Furthermore, a lot of the maids tend to be relatives who are treated well and part of the family. To add, every single society in the East it’s normal to have one and it was normal to have one whilst one parents were growing up.


So I’d say, stop trying to make a mole out of a mountain. All of this talk of ‘laziness’ coming from a man from a culture that expects women to wake up at the crack of dawn whilst the men sleep and are served hand and foot.
 
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