Are you really in charge of your house?

Today, I want to address a pertinent issue that may brush some women the wrong way. Before I start, let me put a disclaimer that I am not holding any brief for a certain popular aunty figure who appears on a local TV show discussing marriage, though my subject matter borders on her forte.

Now ladies, I think some of us have crossed the line when it comes to the roles we have delegated to our house helps.

The other day, I sadly came to discover that a friend I hold in high regard has stooped as low as to allow her househelp to spread her marital bed. I made this shocking discovery while I was visiting her one Saturday morning.

“Njoki, na usisahau kunimakia bed na kuearrange my bedroom,” she shouted from downstairs to her house help who was upstairs tidying the master bedroom.

I was beyond shocked and the villager in me could not understand how a grown-up married woman could delegate a key role like that to a third party.

“Kwani what’s the big deal with that? All my house girls make my bed! Haiya!” she had the nerve to ask when I reprimanded her.

Fellow career women I know we are all as busy as bees juggling a zillion roles from serving as mothers, wives, employees, daughters-in-law, you name it, but preoccupied as we maybe, they are some roles that cannot be ‘donated’ to house helps.

According to me, one of those sacred roles is making your marital bed. And this crime is especially more grave when you delegate this role yet you are lazing around in the house. I would forgive the women who have to ask the house girl to do it because they wake up early leaving the baby still on their beds sleeping. But still...

And this crime does not end there, some of us career mothers are so lazy; we have unconsciously handed over our homes to our house girls.

The house girl does everything in that house from Monday to Monday yet we are alive and kicking.

I do not understand why you should not take charge of your house over the weekends when you are free and give the girl a break once in a while. I have made it a habit in my house that whenever I am off duty, I give the house girl a break and do roles like cooking, washing my bedding and cleaning my room.

My kids and hubby enjoy it when I am in the kitchen because they know that when mama is cooking, there’s something sizzling she’s making.

They all know that mama’s chapos and meat stew are world class compared to Mwende’s (my housie) because Mama adds extra spices, thanks to the many Facebook cooking groups she has joined.

In as much as we are building our thriving careers, our priority ought to be our homes. We need to know every corner of our houses and the only way to know this is if we often do duties like thorough cleaning or if we are too tired, we can at least supervise when it is being done. Let’s take charge of our homes.