Cleaning Lady bringing her kids.....

[not sure]

OK, what would you have done in this situation:

My cleaning lady showed up today with her 2 kids in tow - I guess the schools are on break this week. I have 2 young children & was not ready for or expecting older kids around to "play" with them. I feel I was in an impossible situation and did the best I could by trying to keep her kids somewhat entertained & keep an eye out for my own as well while she worked. Understand my children are very little and I am not accustomed (nor are they) to having complete strangers handle them, etc.

I know she probably had no one else to watch them & she likely really needs the money so she couldn't just cancel, but I didn't really need the very unexpected extra hassle.

So, what would you have done?

[Guest]

I'd usually leave the apartment and the key to the cleaning lady.Once she's done she'll put the key into the post box.Be sure to lock up all of your valuables on that day.

[Bubbles]

What would I have done, honestly? Well, I would have taken her aside, quietly and asked if there was a problem at home as it is rather unusual to bring children along to work. Then I would have said, whilst I understood that I would appreciate it if she did all in her power to find alternative arrangements for her kids next time as it was not the basis you hired her on.

If she did it again then you should really go looking for another lady, but not before you tell your lady this, to give her a chance to make other plans for getting someone to look after the children.

Come on, be fair, there have been times when I could not get anyone to look after my kids (we do not have maids here in UK, far too expensive) so I had to take time off work. I'd love to have seen the looks on my boss's and colleagues faces' if I'd taken two toddlers into the office. Yeah right, it'd have been out of the door pretty sharpish for me, and them.

[Guest]

Poor cleaning lady.Obviously she doesn't have anyone to take care of her kids for her on that particularly unlucky day!For someone who have kids of her own you should be more understanding instead you whine.Why not let them play at the pool/playground while their mom do her job.And I wonder how the cleaning lady can do her cleaning with you and the childrens around?Afraid she'll steal your jewels?Why not take ur babies for a quiet stroll instead or tell her about your unhappiness.?

[starfantasy84]

How young are your kids and how old are the cleaning leady kids? Ermz..maybe you can both suprvise them playing with each other or just like the ealier poster has said. If it doesn't happen often, i guess it's okie, everyone will be in a tight position in oe day.

[not sure]

Guest -
Wow. What a condescending response. I don't see how I was "whining" - I tried to make the best of the situation. Did you not get that she just showed up with her children without asking first? To show up at someone's house with unexpected extra people is basically rude in any situation. I did try to keep her kids entertained - I put a DVD on for them to watch - but they were not interested. I got out books for them to look at & read - but they were not interested. The biggest issue with this situation was any number of things could have gone wrong and I am not sure the cleaning lady thought it through. For example, I told her daughter that I did not want her to pick up my babies because they can get heavy and they squirm around a lot and I did not feel the young girl was old enough or experienced enough to handle them. I said this in very clear terms and a couple of hours after I said it, I came back into the living room to find that the little girl had taken my baby out of his seat and was standing in the middle of the room holding him. Now, what if she had dropped him? Was this girl's mother prepared to deal with that kind of situation? What if her kids had accidentally broken something? Was their mother prepared to replace any item broken? Luckily, none of these things happened. But, the bottom line is, while I understand she probably had nowhere else for them to be when school was out (and I said this in the original post), it is not my responsibility to 'baby-sit' her children.

And, as far as your comment about my "jewels" - that just proves you have some sort of chip on your shoulder.

[starfantasy84]

I know your concerns but maybe you can try not to look at it a bad way? Maybe you don't have to "entertain" them but just treat them like your own kids? play with them as you would play with your children when they grow up. If you have a positive view on this, it would look so bad. Or just express your conerns to the cleaning lady and let her know that you don't mind she miss the cleaning once or twice if she has no one to look after the kids. You see, on the cleaning lady point of view, it's her resposibility to clean your house on time, and she might be worried that if she called to cancel that, you might give her the "boot". But anyway it's over already so don't keep bothering about it.

[Bubbles]

I agree, what a condescending reply..........AND I'm going to make myself unpopular here I suppose, but here goes.....

Why the hell should you have to entertain anyone's kids if you don't want to? Especially if they were not invited. And especially if the cleaning lady had the cheek to bring them with her. OK, I stated all the things I'd do in my first post, but the last couple of posts here have got my goat up.....(annoyed me)

Yeah right........and would your boss let you bring the kids to the office, and run riot? I DON'T THINK SO.

Change cleaning lady if this is going to be a regular thing and not just an emergency happening is what I say.

And no, I'm not a hard bitch, it's just the way the world is......YOU DON'T TAKE KIDS TO WORK, END OF STORY.

[starfantasy84]

Yah i know it's not feeling good to have to entertain people when you don't want to. But my main point is that if you don't look at it in such a negative way, you won't feel so bad about it. There are times when we have to do things we don't like to do but still is being forced to do, so the only solution is to look at it positively. Then we can be more happy about it. Kindness is a cycle, if you are kind to people, next time you'll recieve kindness from other people. Just treat it as doing a good deed. Talk with your cleaning lady in a calm manner and don't flare up cos angry conversations doesn't go anywhere. Just remind her that it's a one time thing. Cool it and let it go.

[not sure]

Thanks, Bubbles - for both of your posts. You had good, sound advice in the first and you are saying exactly what I think in the second.

Starfantasy - I was very kind, I think I went above and beyond given the circumstances (I even offered to make her kids some lunch). I never said an angry word at all. All things considered, I probaby wouldn't care so much if the cleaning lady in question did an absolutely fantastic & flawless job cleaning every time. But, this is not the case.

For the record, I only got back on this thread because of the condescending remarks made by 'Guest' - before that, I considered the whole incident over and in the past.

[starfantasy84]

Yup, that's it. You can praise yourself for showing kindness in return of the trouble the cleaning lady brings. So the thread can be closed already.

[Loops]

Best thing to do I reckon is to tell her that you'd rather she didn't bring them again. It is a bit of a cheek to take a couple of kids with you when you are working, especially if you haven't mentioned it to the employer beforehand. I used to do a job where I took my kids occasionally, but it was in a playgroup so they didn't mind - however trying to clean someone's house/apartment which contains a total of 6 (am I right in thinking that there were 6 of you in there!!!) people must be a job and a half!! I'm surprised the place didn't look messier after she'd left than before she arrived