The women’s majlis: That’s not the maid’s job – it’s yours

We all need help at some point in our lives. This could be the help of a teacher very early on to learn the alphabet when we are young, or the help of our parents to overcome obstacles at any given point in life. We have to be involved in order for us to learn and overcome these stumbling blocks as we go through life.

Rapid development in the UAE and the increasing number of working mothers have also led to an increase in the demand for domestic help. Now there are maids working in almost every home in the UAE. Some families fail to understand the job of a maid. In my opinion, maids are there to assist in completing the home chores, but not to manage everything by themselves.

For example, it’s very ­common to hear a child saying a word, which he or she has learnt from the maid, and which the parents or other family members may not utter, or even know of. It has also become common to see the maid accompanying the kids to school, birthday parties and other activities. We have reached a point in our lives where, if we were to lose the help of our maids, we would be lost.

We fail to remember the importance of our parenting roles, the core essence of which is to unite and do things as a family. Which means we all have to be ­involved when it’s a family matter. Not just sit and ­relax while watching the maid cook, feed our children and do the things that, as a family, we are obliged to do.

I’m not suggesting that I’m a perfect mother who’s able to run her kingdom without the help of a maid. I lead a busy life, where I barely have time for myself. I run two businesses besides my day job and am soon going to be operating a third business. In the middle of all of this, my main concern is to always have quality time with my kids and husband.

When I need to give myself a break from everything I would not be able to do it without our maid. I admit I have to count on the maid to be able to have some “me” time. In the end, it’s how you balance things, how you plan and prioritise.

Sometimes I leave the maid and the kids at my ­parents’ house to have them under my mother’s supervision, but I cannot ask my mother to look after them all the time because she has diabetes and hypertension. I understand that it’s difficult for someone in her position to look after kids who are at a young age of 5 and 3, and who require close attention. But then, they always have me.

Sarah Khamis is a social ­media editor at The National.

• If you are an Emirati woman who has a good story to tell or an interesting issue to ­debate, contact Shireena Al Nowais at salnuwais@­thenational.ae.