I happened to visit a certain home and I was shocked the way the house help in that home was treated. Imagine someone wakes up very early in the morning and works tirelessly. She does all the general cleaning plus washing clothes, looks after two children and at the same does the kitchen activities, let us say cooking, wash plates to mention a few. When the boss or the mother of the children comes back, she expects to see everything in order. Perfect. The boss (man or woman) doesn’t consider the workload they left behind, but only complaints. She (the house wife) doesn’t stop from there, but as she enters the house and finds something not well done or half way done, she straight away tells the maid how useless and irresponsible she is. On a daily routine the boss tells the maid how she is not serious and that at anytime she can be fired and replaced with another. Oh, what a life to lead! How can you insult a normal person in so many demeaning ways? Imagine you are telling such words to a person who spends the everyday with your 3 and 5 year old children. Don’t you think that you are creating a bitter heart in that person? Maids are people like us; they are human beings who also need some respect. Am not saying that you give them freedom to do whatever they like. Just talking to them in a friendly manner could brighten their day. A number of the people we use at home, especially the young people, come from disadvantaged families which are poverty stricken. It is the condition at home that forces them to leave and seek for jobs. Through the negative words we speak say to them; we create bitter hearts and change their altitudes towards life. Sometimes I sit down and think that if we all knew people’s destinies, we could not treat certain people the way we do. Have you ever thought that the life of the house-help you are mistreating can change for the better? Probably it is a journey God is letting that house-help pass into his or her brightest future, who knows… By the way, what if in the future you happen to seek for an urgent help and later discover that the only person to help is the maid you mistreated, how would you feel or handle you self? Better treat everyone well. No one knows what the future holds. Life will always remain a mystery. Don’t be caught in the web. Contact: gachakim@yahoo.com
