# Did ya'll have a maid/housekeeper when you were a child?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-yall-have-a-maid-housekeeper-when-you-were-a-child/338112>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 2, 2006, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-yall-have-a-maid-housekeeper-when-you-were-a-child/338112 "2006-01-02T20:21:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\
**Post date:** [January 4, 2006, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-yall-have-a-maid-housekeeper-when-you-were-a-child/338112/41 "2006-01-04T19:50:24Z")

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> [@monstro](#):
>
> I guess what I want to know, especially from the older Dopers from the South (over 45 years old): Did you have a maid in your house growing up? Was she treated as almost part of the family? Did she have a positive impact on your development or was she just “there”? Was having a maid commonplace back in the day? At least moreso than it is now? When did this change and why?

I didn’t grow up in the south but my father did (born 1919) and his family did have a full-time maid who helped raise him. Nor were they wealthy; my grandmother supported the family. I think maids were a lot less costly back then. FWIW, my father was caucasian and the maid was black; I imagine that part of the way it was affordable was the pay differential between the races.

Me: born late 50s, northeast; we had a once-a-week cleaning lady for a few hours. My mother did not work outside the house until I was 12 or so and then only part-time.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-yall-have-a-maid-housekeeper-when-you-were-a-child/338112/42 "2006-01-05T02:27:59Z")

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One of my professors told us how he had a black nanny/housekeeper as a child growing up in Pittsburgh. He said he used to love it when she would let him spend the weekend with her family in the Hill District.

Other than that, I don’t know ANYONE who ever had a housekeeper-black or white.

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