being "those people"

It's true. We've become "those people". You know - those people with hired help. People who pay other people to do things for them - like gardening, house cleaning, child rearing.

It happened gradually. First - I was too depressed to clean up my yard (infertility does that to you), which had become an overgrown disaster. So I combed craig.s list and found someone to do a one time yard clean up for me. And one time became two, which became a regular occurance. I partly justify it by telling everyone that she's really reasonably priced. (which she is - you'd be suprised if I told you)

But I always prided myself on the fact that I cleaned my own house. And my house was clean! But - when massively pregnant with twins, one has a hard time getting down on all fours to scrub bathroom floors. So my mother convinced me that it was time to hire some help for that. So I did. Now we have a housekeeper. (but she's reasonably priced too).

And then there's the nanny. She's not reasonably priced - but worth her weight in gold (and gold is expensive these days!).

Add it all up - and before you know it - we are those people - people who have all this household staff. We don't look like those kind of people, we don't act like those kind of people. I am not helpless - I am capable of doing for myself - I cook and sew and clean (the housekeeper comes every two weeks). I make baby food. I breastfeed twins darn it!

Ah - so you ask the obvious question - if we didn't have all this hired help - couldn't we maybe afford for me to quit my job and just do it all myself. Unfortunately no - I did the math. (waa, poor me - I know, I'll quit complaining now).