We did it. We hired someone to do our housework. We now have an ayi.
At times I feel like a superior being by employing the workers of Shanghai. This attitude of mine sits uneasily on me. Its against my nature, but I see it this way.
Lin had pushed me to get an ayi for the last 4 months. And I was reticent in looking into this. There's a lot of issues with allowing a stranger into your house. Trust & security take centre stage in my mind. But the real reason I was so reticent to do this was due to my guilt at hiring someone to do your housework. Australians do have an aversion to hiring help - unless its a plumber or an electrician you pay exorbitant sums to inform you it will take an additional exorbitant sum to fix your household's problem. It goes against the egalitarian ethos of the Australia I know knew. Times are a changing, and Australian's are becoming more and more effluent. But a maid is a far off item to check-off when considering the new 4WD, the second 4WD, or the investment home that's been negative-geared.
Lin pushed me to do this to save our time. As we're both working full-time jobs and studying on the side, she argued that anything that lightens our load a little is good for our state of mind and the cleanliness of our home. And as usual, she was right.
I now have clean clothes, a dust-free house, windows you can actually see out of (and I know my Mum would be sighing relief at that revelation), and about 4 hours free on Saturday morning which was once taken up with doing these chores and sitting around waiting for the washing machine had ended its runs.
Lu Ayi appeared in our lives care of Matt-Man and Kate. This is a well-trodden path for finding an ayi. Asking your expat mates if they know if their Ayi would like a second, third, or fourth job usually strikes gold. We were introduced to Lu Ayi, and through Kate we spoke generally about things (as she speaks Shanghaihua). And pretty much that was it. We had someone we trusted, care of our friends, and a one-day a week helper in our home.
Something that seemed impossibly difficult to arrange worked out smoothly.
Image Taken From Heromachine.Com
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