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Cleaning help ... what do you call it?



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amother


 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 8:43 am
I call it a "cleaning lady"

my neighbor refers to her help as her "[gentile woman]"

friend always says "housekeeper"

Europeans will say "cleaner"

or Nannny

live in????

which term do you use??
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finallyamommy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 9:08 am
I think these are all different words.

If someone is hired for a few hours at a time to do the deep cleaning, that is a cleaner or a cleaning lady. A housekeeper sort of oversees the house including meal planning, light cleaning, maybe welcoming children home from school, that kind of thing. A nanny watches children. A live in I think generally also refers to someone who watches children, or maybe the elderly. I suppose there could be a live in cleaning lady situation somewhere, but I've never heard of it.

And personally, though I'm probably being overly literal here, I dislike the term "cleaning help" unless you're the type who will drop everything and clean right along with her, because otherwise she is not "helping" you clean, she is doing all the cleaning FOR you.

The "gentile woman" slur is offensive, and actually all the cleaning ladies I know are Jewish.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 9:15 am
I'm European and I say femme de ménage or bonne.
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mandr




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 11:40 am
I say Gotye Wink He was somebody that I used to know.

JK. I say cleaning woman. I don't like the term "cleaning lady" so much.
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crystal




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 2:34 pm
mandr wrote:
I say Gotye Wink He was somebody that I used to know.

JK. I say cleaning woman. I don't like the term "cleaning lady" so much.

J
Now and then I think of all the times she ([gentile woman]) screwed me over...

Love that song!
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debsey




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 2:50 pm
Personally, I call it a MIRACLE!
JK
I call her by her name. And when I'm talking about her - same thing (as in, when Anna comes tomorrow, I'll ask her to iron your shabbos blouse, sweetie....)
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m in Israel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 3:10 pm
esheschayil wrote:

And personally, though I'm probably being overly literal here, I dislike the term "cleaning help" unless you're the type who will drop everything and clean right along with her, because otherwise she is not "helping" you clean, she is doing all the cleaning FOR you.

.


If you want to get overly literal, then unless you have a full time live-in cleaner, it is highly unlikely that she is doing "all the cleaning FOR you". Cleaning help is someone who is HELPING you keep your house clean by doing certain cleaning jobs for a certain amount of time. Whether you are doing cleaning at that particular moment doesn't change the fact that most women do quite a bit of cleaning in between visits from the person hired to clean.

In any case, I am with the previous poster who says she calls her by her name. I do the same -- I'll say "XXX is coming today" or "I am asking XXX to do this job." If I am talking about it in a generic sense then I do use the term "cleaning lady" (as in "I am looking to hire a cleaning lady").
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 3:23 pm
she HELPs by CLEANING;)
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finallyamommy




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 4:39 pm
I mean, I would call her by her name too, if I had one. I've never had one. When we had someone come and clean when I was little, it was always "Marilyn is coming over today." At my grandparents' house it was always "Betty is here now." But the OP had a whole bunch of words that as far as I know mean a whole lot of different things, and that's what I was responding to.
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amother


 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 4:56 pm
My son has taken to asking if I could ask our domestic associate to iron his shirt.
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Frumdoc




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Sep 17 2014, 5:54 pm
I call her "the boss".

As in, I tell dh "The boss is coming tomorrow so please leave out your shirts to be ironed."!

She leaves me notes telling me what cleaning materials I have run out of and projects I might need to do, like clean out the shelves in the study. Then she reminds me when to start pesach cleaning. I love it!

In return, I give her relationship and medical advice for her and her numerous family members, we exchange shopping tips and I teach her how to cook vegetarian food for her health conscious boyfriend.

We have a fab working relationship.
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Dawling




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:34 am
You forgot the more PC term, "cleaning technician".
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:46 am
Dawling wrote:
You forgot the more PC term, "cleaning technician".


LOL yeah. I can't deal with pc...
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amother


 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:48 am
House keeper
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freidasima




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:51 am
I don't have any help in the house but so much easier here.
If it is a person who cleans your home then it's an "ozeret" or "ozer" if male. (helper, literally)
If it is a person who takes care of the kids or an elderly person or a sick or feeble person it's a "metapelet" or "metapel" (carer, literall)
If it is a live in one sometimes says "au pair" (also in Hebrew).

In America my mother called her cleaning help by their name and if it was a random it was the "cleaning woman". We didn't have nannys or au pairs. After so many years in EY when speaking to her friends from abroad she would use the Hebrew words "ozeret" or "metapelet" (lol!) and after a while her american friends picked up the words and would use them as well.

We NEVER used any descriptive or derrogatory word having to do with a person's color, race or religion. Although when we were abroad sometimes my kids who wanted to refer to the "locals" would not want to use the word "g - o - y" because it was well understood so they would say "orel" (uncircumcised)...which when speaking about women turned into "oreilo" which is quite a joke in itself as it can't physically be!
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mommy3b2c




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 9:40 am
debsey wrote:
Personally, I call it a MIRACLE!
JK
I call her by her name. And when I'm talking about her - same thing (as in, when Anna comes tomorrow, I'll ask her to iron your shabbos blouse, sweetie....)


But what if I m talking about her to someone who doesn't know her? As in- "my cleaning lady is coming today." I wouldn't say my Angela is coming today. I'll say my cleaning lady. To her face I call her Angela and she calls me by my name. Btw, not her real name because I am obsessed with her and talk about her all the time so people would know who I am.
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aqua1




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Sep 30 2014, 2:46 pm
I call her my housekeeper but to her face and people who know her I use her real name
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Oct 01 2014, 7:51 am
Nanny is a nanny.
Live in is a live in whatever.
Nothing to do with cleaning help Smile
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