The Maid's Daughter - Ch.1 Who is Caring for the Maid's Children?

Ch. 1 delves into the reality of the lives of immigrant’s children. The maid’s children experience many different issues concerning the blurred work/relationship lines their mothers have with their employers. The mothers need to take jobs as nannies or maids because of their limited work options due to their legal status. The children of these hard workers often grow up quickly, tending to their home the same way their mothers do for other people. The children can grow up to feel resentment or bitterness at the parental time lost, usually to raising other children.

The role of the mother and maid/nanny is blurred in this complicated work relationship. The Anglo employers seek women of illegal status for various reasons. Cheap labor and cultural capitol as influence on their children. The maid is stereotyped by her race, class, ethnicity and caste. The maids are taken advantage of, they are in a precarious position where they can’t report abuse or exploitation. The employers are unappreciative of the many sacrifices the maids are giving up, and inconsiderate to the maids’ families’ needs. This encourages learned helplessness.

The children of maids experience a lack of care that their moms give their employers’ kids. The children end up caring for the home in the absence of their mothers. They learn to cook and clean or take on extra menial jobs to help alleviate their mothers’ financial burdens.

These blurred lines of the dominant employer and subordinate maid causes restrictions on the maids to parent their own kids. These women want to be good mothers but leave their children to work and support them. It’s ironic that the employers look down upon the workers of the home for doing the work that they can’t do themselves. It will be interesting to hear Olivia (the main character’s story) and how she is able to do well for herself as her hard working mother has always hoped for.