“It’s the maid’s day off. What are we going to do?!”
Can’t say that I ever heard that ring through my house, growing up in Canada. Armando, on the other hand, grew up in Mexico where having a maid was a common thing among many Mexicans. Hmmmm, maybe that’s why Armando has a problem with cleaning up messes he leave behind. Perhaps I should be more tolerant of his seemly inability to clean up his coffee spills or his lack of knowledge that plastics should go on the top rack of the dishwasher. He didn’t have to know any of that. His home had a maid that would cook, clean and look after the daily duties of keeping the house in order.
Me, on the other hand, never knew of anyone who had a maid growing up. The idea of someone looking after your household for you seemed so foreign to me. So, when I first visited Armando’s family in Mexico, offering to help clean up after dinner was a natural gesture for me but Armando quickly explained that the maid would look after it. Nice! I could get used to that! But still a bit odd and uncomfortable. I felt bad that someone was looking after my mess. I’m fully capable of cleaning it up, why should I make someone else do it? Oh! But it’s so nice not having to clean! And, so it goes, the dilemma in my head…embrace it, or not?
Armando and I sure caused a brief moment of chaos in his abuela’s home the other day when we called his grandmother to let her know that we booked flights to detour to Mexico City for a couple days to visit them in December before we head to Los Cabos for our wedding.
“But, it’s the maid’s day off on those days. What are we going to do?”, was her response. Armando’s suggestion of ordering pizza was dismissed. After a gathering of his grandmother, mother and aunts, it was decided that his aunt would lend her maid for the day to cook for us. Crisis diverted.
What different worlds. But, I guess it’s my duty, as I am about to marry a Mexican, to embrace their culture and accept the lifestyle of being looked after like that. Oh, what I do for love! Only problem is that we live in Canada and the cost for a daily maid is a lot more expensive here, hence, why most people don’t have a maid at their beck and call.
So, as I daydream of the “Mexican lifestyle”, sweeping our kitchen floor, I notice a coffee stain on the countertop. “Oh, what I do for love….”, I think to myself as I wipe up the stain and start counting down the days until we arrive in Mexico.
westcoastprairiegirl 