As for modern folks “having a lady come in”, or hiring a gardening crew, I think that one defining feature of a servant is that they have a sole employer. If your cleaning lady who comes in every two weeks also does the same for a dozen other families, then she’s not your servant. But if she works just for you (and thus, likely does a lot more than just the cleaning), then she is.
One phrase that isn’t so common any more in the UK is “the lady who does” (I wonder why?!), as in the music-hall joke about the sign outside a boarding house “Young Men Taken In And Done For”.
And as for governesses, here’s a favourite song of my grandmother, who came from a line of governesses/nannies - it tells you something about Victorian expectations (for next to no pay):
http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/songster/35-wanted-a-governess.htm
I agree… I tend to think of the modern-day people more along the lines of contractors on retainer rather than servants.
I mean, our cleaning ladies show up once every couple of weeks and do the heavy cleaning, and the yard guys show up every week or two (depending on the season) and mow. But what they do for us, how often, and what they’re paid is very clearly defined.
I always had the idea that “servants” were more like full-time employees with rather less well defined job descriptions and frequency- they show up every day (or live with you) and do what needs doing, within their expertise.
In Little Women, the characters often complain about how poor they are, but they have a live-in servant, Hannah. And then Meg marries John Brooke, who is often described as a poor man, but they have someone come in to help with the harder housework, too.
I was watching an episode of Entitlement Whores International [House Hunters Intnl] set in India and one of the places they were looking at was a house with a smaller house in the garden with a resident family of servants that apparently carried with the house. [IMHO morons … they went with a crappy apartment instead, I would have gone for the house with the servants and taken the opportunity to have someone around to help learn the ropes of living in the area. Also square footage, dudes…]
The resident maid of all work/companion of my Grandmother is buried in the family plot. They imported her from Germany in the Weimar era [um, 1923, when the eldest son was born, Marie was originally brought over to be the nanny. She ended up nannying my Dad and his 2 brothers, but also all 3 sets of us kids as my Dad and uncles had the kids at different times, so the family was able to sort of time share her =) She maid/companioned my Grandmother in between and after us kids grew out of her [I was the last, and she left when I turned 12] I grew up with her as effectively my alternate Mom/Grandmother figure as my mom had her own non-resident day maids even though Marie lived with us. She also moved back in with my parents after my Grandmother died as a sort of retirement and had what had been my brother’s bedroom. Her income was social security and rental from a property that my grandfather had given her in 1950 - she had always rented it out and never lived in it.]