True Ambrose confession

I want an ayi.

I want an ayi so incredibly bad right now. I want an ayi because I want to have a clean apartment that requires no effort on my part to maintain.

I want the toys picked up and the toilet scrubbed. Oh do I want someone else to scrub that bathroom for me.

I want to walk across the kitchen floor and not feel something crunch beneath my feat.

Heck, I want to walk across my bedroom floor without something crunching beneath my feet In other words, hooray for 16-months-old!

I want my laundry folded. And put away. Properly.

I especially want the coal dust wiped from it all.

I want all this done, and done everyday, so that when I invite another foreigner to come over (Myles has a friend coming all the way from Beijing proper to play), I'm not in a panic the preceding 24 hours to get everything done to make it look like I run this home so smoothly that I couldn't possibly need an ayi.

Yes, yes, I know all my aversions to having a full-time maid (and Randy's to having even a part-time maid). And after hearing possibly the worst first-hand ayi horror story from one of my American friends (which involved threats of kidnapping, extortion attempts, and the police dragging their trusted ayi of YEARS out of their garden after she suddenly turned on their family) I am really opposed to having any domestic help whatsoever.

But I would really like everything done with no effort from me.

I feel better having admitted that already.

Comments

i don't live in china and I want one too! :-p

don't feel bad, its hard doing things yourself with littles!
Anonymous said…
Jen, I loved my Ayi and that story about the Ayi gone bad is terrible to think of. I will tell you though that even with an Ayi working for me 40 hours a week, we still had coal dust everywhere. It is just impossible to clean it all up. She would mop the floor right in front of me and still we would have black socks. I think you make it too hard on yourself. Your foreign friend will understand. Just have fun!
Becky
Whimsy said…
I always tell my husband that if I had a bigger homeschooling budget I would buy a janitor. And travel.
Anonymous said…
As I was sitting outside on Tuesday, washing the blinds one slat at a time to get the dust, dog slobber and many mysterious juice drops off, I, too, wished for some domestic help! Especially when my almost three year old wanted to help and took the washcloth and started cleaning the concrete pad and then dipped it in my clean wash water!! ugh what I wouldn't have given for a maid!!!
Magnus said…
Good grief, I feel like I have to confess something now... um... I confess that I never used my kitchen in my old apartment! I ate out every night!!! AAAAAUGH. I feel much better now!
Donna said…
Arghhh - blogger ate my comment. Okay, well, I tried to say - thanks for linking to my article.

I have an ayi, but she's gone this week, and I miss her already. It's simply impossible to keep up with the dust and nastiness and laundry folding around here - even when she is here. And I'm already dreading moving away and going back to doing it all (or not) by myself.
Can I tell you how desperately I've wanted someone to come clean my house in the past year. Especially the bathroom. Definitely part of having toddlers.
Jen Ambrose said…
Oh Melanie. Just wait until you have to toilet train Ben. And then just wait for the day he starts getting up by himself in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.
So not looking forward to that. We've already had to deal with some aim issues with Bella. You wouldn't think a little girl would be able to spray the floor while sitting down; but she managed to do so consistently,aiming for the gap between the seat and the rim of the bowl, until we trained her to lean forward.