Post by dgriffin on Apr 3, 2009 21:28:43 GMT -5
Not much doing here tonight, as I sit here pondering whether I'll go out fishing tomorrow. The forecast calls for rain and I'm definitely feeling like a fair weather fisherman as I get older. And lazier.
So I noticed that we have a new banner ad on Clippers Corners. The folks call themselves Care.com and they claim to be wonderful and caring nannies and babysitters, available in the New York State area of the country.
Having read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed," a few years back, and especially remembering the chapter where she becomes a member of a Merry Maids cleaning crew, I got to wondering.
You may remember the Merry Maids were anything but merry, since they were paid so little and worked so hard. The man who owned the franchise was getting rich while the women slaved away for minimum wage, barely cleaning the homes in their care.
For each home visit, a Maid was allowed only two rags and a miniscule amount of cleaning solution that was applied ONCE to one of the rags for the entire house cleaning. The boss allowed them so few cleaning materials and so little time to do each home, that nothing was really cleaned. Often drinking glasses in the bathroom were wiped rather than washed, as an example. The most used liquid was a spray squirted in each room just before the Maid left. It smelled like something had been cleaned, though the stuff had no antiseptic properties.
So, given that vicarious experience via Ms. Ehrenreich's book, I got to wondering how a similarly run Child Care and Babysitting service might operate.
Right after you kiss little Snookums goodbye, and give the last of your intricate instructions to Merry Momma, you walk out the door and the mildly pleasant young woman administers a long term sedative to the baby to keep his/her lights dim for the next eight hours. That large bag she brought that you thought was filled with child care essentials, folds open to reveal a plasticized hamper of sorts with tubes and dials and gutters and a motorcycle battery at one end. The stripped and sedated child is mounted face up on the device and strapped in. Merry Momma pushes a switch and the contraption comes to life, whirring and vibrating, with soothing electronic sounds wafting out from its twin speakers. Sweetie-kins is now programmed to have all of its bodily needs taken care of throughout the day, with no human intervention, leaving Merry Momma free to pursue her real job, her main occupation in life, which she'll busy herself with for the next eight hours.
Oh, use your imagination. She might be finishing up a paper for her Antrhopology class. She might be Day Trading via WiFi on her laptop. She could be a close friend of Eliot Spitzer. I'm sure at least one Momma will have clients in for a Seance, having found this more lucrative than Internet Poker. Especially a Strip Seance. (That's where you have to take off what the Medium says the Ghost just took off.)
At the end of the day, does Baby Himself or Herself wake up rested and playful and happy? Of course not! Would you? The kid wakes up cranky and hungry for bulk, and just hoping to get his clothes back. So when you come home and are told little Munchkins was cranky and uncooperative all day, you feel so bad for the poor Merry Momma that you over-tip her. After all, you know how hard it is to keep good help.
Sure, the kid seems to get better quickly through the evening, although you wonder about those strap marks on its arms and legs. Tomorrow, when Merry Momma comes again, you'll have to suggest she be more careful strapping Junior into the baby swing at the park when they go out to play.
So I noticed that we have a new banner ad on Clippers Corners. The folks call themselves Care.com and they claim to be wonderful and caring nannies and babysitters, available in the New York State area of the country.
Having read Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed," a few years back, and especially remembering the chapter where she becomes a member of a Merry Maids cleaning crew, I got to wondering.
You may remember the Merry Maids were anything but merry, since they were paid so little and worked so hard. The man who owned the franchise was getting rich while the women slaved away for minimum wage, barely cleaning the homes in their care.
For each home visit, a Maid was allowed only two rags and a miniscule amount of cleaning solution that was applied ONCE to one of the rags for the entire house cleaning. The boss allowed them so few cleaning materials and so little time to do each home, that nothing was really cleaned. Often drinking glasses in the bathroom were wiped rather than washed, as an example. The most used liquid was a spray squirted in each room just before the Maid left. It smelled like something had been cleaned, though the stuff had no antiseptic properties.
So, given that vicarious experience via Ms. Ehrenreich's book, I got to wondering how a similarly run Child Care and Babysitting service might operate.
Right after you kiss little Snookums goodbye, and give the last of your intricate instructions to Merry Momma, you walk out the door and the mildly pleasant young woman administers a long term sedative to the baby to keep his/her lights dim for the next eight hours. That large bag she brought that you thought was filled with child care essentials, folds open to reveal a plasticized hamper of sorts with tubes and dials and gutters and a motorcycle battery at one end. The stripped and sedated child is mounted face up on the device and strapped in. Merry Momma pushes a switch and the contraption comes to life, whirring and vibrating, with soothing electronic sounds wafting out from its twin speakers. Sweetie-kins is now programmed to have all of its bodily needs taken care of throughout the day, with no human intervention, leaving Merry Momma free to pursue her real job, her main occupation in life, which she'll busy herself with for the next eight hours.
Oh, use your imagination. She might be finishing up a paper for her Antrhopology class. She might be Day Trading via WiFi on her laptop. She could be a close friend of Eliot Spitzer. I'm sure at least one Momma will have clients in for a Seance, having found this more lucrative than Internet Poker. Especially a Strip Seance. (That's where you have to take off what the Medium says the Ghost just took off.)
At the end of the day, does Baby Himself or Herself wake up rested and playful and happy? Of course not! Would you? The kid wakes up cranky and hungry for bulk, and just hoping to get his clothes back. So when you come home and are told little Munchkins was cranky and uncooperative all day, you feel so bad for the poor Merry Momma that you over-tip her. After all, you know how hard it is to keep good help.
Sure, the kid seems to get better quickly through the evening, although you wonder about those strap marks on its arms and legs. Tomorrow, when Merry Momma comes again, you'll have to suggest she be more careful strapping Junior into the baby swing at the park when they go out to play.