Enroll her in the same school with your children
The best thing you can do for your house-help is to enroll her in the same school with your biological children, be it private or government school. There is a saying that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. The first step in maltreating housemaids is sending them in a school different from the school of the master/mistress. If truly you want to show compassion to your maid, start with this.
Get good clothes for him/her
Let no one differentiate between your children and your house-help by mere looking at their dresses. While shopping for clothes, shop for your housemaid too. He/she needs to look good.
Provide good shelter for her
Shelter does not only mean living in your house, making sure he/she sleeps on a good foam, sleeps under mosquito net, and in a well-ventilated room is also part of providing shelter for her. Some house-helps are given rooms in a place that can only be reserved for animals and yet the mistress feels she has done nothing wrong to the child.
Give her good food
The food you eat should be the food he/she eats. Some people are good at feeding their house-help with soured and left -over food. Some madams go as far as ensuring that the children of the family eat first before the house-help to hedge against food wastage by turning the house-help to dog. Please Ma/Sir; give her warm food just like your children!
Play with her sometimes
If you want to know how wicked some people are, go to their house and watch how they treat their house-help. The same way you play with your children, also play with your house-help sometimes to make her feel human too. It is not every time that you have to shout at your house assistance to drive home the point that you are the boss and she the sub-ordinate. Every human sometimes in life have the need to feel belonged.
Let her get close to her family
The truth is when you treat your house-help right, there is no need to be scared of taking her to her family house. The major reason people fear to take their maid to their family house is because of maltreatment. They are afraid that they maid may not be ready to follow them back to their house should they set their foot in their family house. The truth is if the maid looks well taking care of, the parents will encourage her to follow you back even if she decides not to follow you as a result of being a child.
Let your children respect her self-worth
Have you ever been to a house and see a seven year old child calling a grown-up housemaid by her name and talking to her as if they are mates? The parents encouraged that. Teach your children how to respect your house-help. The respect accorded to them by your children can also extend to you because children who talk to their maid anyhow might one day talk to you the parents the same manner.
Put yourself in her shoe sometimes
As a human, we do forget things, fall sick, get tired etc. so why beat your domestic assistance up because he/she forgot one or two chores you assigned her? When he said that he is tired, can you try and understand for once? When she said that she is feeling sick, get her some drugs and allow her to take some rest. All these things may seem trivial but are very crucial in dealing with other people’s children.
Show her love
One would wonder whether all that have been written above is not love. This point come to show you that they content in this write-up is not exhaustive. Just apply the golden rule principle in your dealing with your house assistance. Do anything that keep him/her happy while protecting your interest and that of your family.
Give her/him a sustainable daily schedule
When we don’t have visitors and if we aren’t out in the evening, our entire household goes to bed early. Sometimes as early as 9 PM. Dinner is generally at 6 PM for our family, which means that our helpers can retire early.
I know this article is prone to criticism that house-helps should be avoided in totality as people see it as a child abuse but before you criticize, not the following points:
– This article is focused on house-helps and not nannies. Therefore it is assumed that the people who are regarded as house-helps here are children who are mostly below the age of eighteen.
– The reason for taking a house-help is not necessary because the person taking in the maid needs domestic assistance, but sometimes, it could be to help the child either due to large family size, poor family background, and divorce of parents or in worst case, the death of either or both parents. As you can see, some cases actually warrant taking in a maid or a foster daughter as many refer to it. You may not necessary call her maid but in as much as she/he is not your biological child but is living in the same room with you then everything written here is applicable to you.