I would, but I might be embarrassed about it too, because I am very OCD about my habits and I would hate to impose my OCD demands on someone else who is cleaning/tidying etc. Maybe I would hire one such assistant, but pay the assistant a huge salary to compensate for my never-ending nitpicking about how the laundry should be done or which thing should go here or how to arrange things.
I’d hire help that lived off site, but I’d pay extra for their gas and mileage.
Here in Panama I have a cleaning lady who comes in every two weeks. She does the washing and ironing and some superficial cleaning. My apartment has a cuarto de servicio but I use it for storage. (Interestingly, although the other two bathrooms in the apartment have hot water, the maid’s quarters, which has a private bath and shower, only has cold water.)
If I were wealthy, I would have a bigger house and a garden. I would have a housekeeper and a gardener, but not live-in. I value my privacy, so I would only have them come in on a schedule. Considering the traffic in Panama City, I would probably also want a chauffeur on call. A personal assistant to take care of annoying errands and chores would be handy too.
I have a guy who mows the lawn once a week all summer and clears the driveway of snow whenever it snows and I pay him a fixed monthly rate. And we have a woman who comes to clean every second week. As a bonus, her husband does home handyman type things of the sort I used to do myself when I was younger.
But if I were really wealthy, I might not change the above. The idea of a live-in maid I find slightly decadent. Of course, if I get really older, I would prefer that to having to live in a care facility.
my servants would have servants
Yes, but I would think of them more as a team, they would in most cases have a second skill or attribute that would contribute.
I live in a small apartment that I certainly don’t keep as clean as I’d like, so I’d certainly hire someone to keep it clean, although if I were wealthy, I’d almost certainly live somewhere nicer and with more space. And a personal chef would be nice too. One thing I’d want the chef to do is to visit my mother and learn how to make all of my childhood favorites. My mother gave me some recipes, so I can approximate some of her stuff, but it would be nice to have someone who knows what they’re doing figure out how to make her food.
And a chauffeur seems excessive, but were I wealthy, I’d definitely use a private car service all the time. Like when I visit a friend and they serve wine. I could indulge knowing I’m not driving home. Or rather than taking a door-to-door shuttle from the airport, I’d be met by one of those drivers holding up my name on a sign.
As said, though, none of these would be servants in the traditional sense but instead would be hired service pros.
God no. I can barely put up with my own family at times - the thought of some strangers puttering around my house is like nails on a blackboard for me. I suppose I can have someone come by once a week to clean if my house is too big to do it myself, but a cook? If I’m rich enough for a live-in cook, I’m rich enough for a good restaurant or expensive take-out every day.
I remember watching one of the Justice league cartoons. Lex Luther had a female body guard. She was huge and totally kicked ass.
So yeah, I’d want to hire some six foot tall female body builder trained in martial arts to be my body guard. Lol
I’d have an entire army of Oompa-Loompas!
Actually, just a driver would suffice. Or a car-service on speed dial. I hate driving, but don’t have a problem with other household chores.
I would, because it would provide employment to people and I’d be a good employer to them. I wouldn’t need many people though: I would like to have a private driver (though I enjoy driving, I’d do most of mine on a track if I were wealthy enough to have a staff), a maid or butler, and a chef. I think that would probably be enough.
No, and the name servant doesn’t sit well. I would not mind paying well for cleaning my house or doing the gardening. I would not want someone to live in, or do my cooking or driving. If I had children, tutoring and lessons would be fine.
Well, yeah, if I was really feeble and old having a live in care provider would be very nice.
Let me see, my Chef might also have a degree in math and chemistry and double as my tutor
My Gardener would have a degree in horticulture and botany and assist me with my greenhouse projects
My Handyman would be a master carpenter skilled in most phases of wood working, he would also maintain our wood shop and assist me with projects.
My personal assistant would be an English major with a degree in creative writing.
My Animal keeper would have a degree in biology and other animal related sciences and would assist me in breeding programs.
I would take full advantage of my new found wealth.
I’d certainly hire an accountant, which is a servant. In my particular case, Id have to hire a driver.
But generally, as much a possible, I wouldn’t want anybody uderfoot. I don’t want to pay somebody to break, lose, misplace or hide things I use.
What about the very obvious scenario of going to work every morning and earning a lot more than you pay a nanny to watch your kids?
There are different levels of “servants”. Where I live, nannies and au pairs are pretty common because most families have both parents working fancy jobs in Manhattan. I mean, unless of course the husband works a job so fancy where he can afford both a nanny and a wife as a SAHM. But the point being that in a two-income family, a nanny is a necessity.
A cleaning lady who comes in once a week to dust and vacuum is also a fairly common expense. Although we don’t have one. Our place is too much of a dump.
Does the communal staff of building maintenance workers and concierges count as “servants”? What about hiring a gardener or some kid to plow your driveway?
Or are we talking about Downton Abbey style full time live-in domestic staff?
The reason wealthy people got that way is because they have lucrative jobs or business enterprises that paid them a shit ton of money. Not because they squirreled away every cent and made wise investments.
And as I alluded to above, often the employment of “servants” is often an investment in time.
I would not directly hire anyone nor have a live-in anything. I nether have nor want kids, so child care isn’t an issue. I’d definitely hire a landscaping service to keep my garden in good shape and a cleaning service to come in once a week. The only dirty place on my property would be the forge, I wouldn’t want anyone moving my tools around or mangling themselves with the power hammer.
If my lifestyle stayed the exact same, I probably wouldn’t see the point in hiring help. But I have a feeling that if I became wealthy, I would become a lot busier doing things that I can’t do now. Hell, I hope I wouldn’t be living the same boring life! So given that my calendar would be filled with “saving the world” endeavors , I probably would feel it necessary to hire help.
My coming in to a bunch of money wouldn’t change my life much at this point except add free time. As I’m a middle-aged single man, I don’t need more than the 3br/1ba I’ve got now, and I only spend about 2 hours a week doing housekeeping; I already have a guy do the yard work. My cooking time is more recreational than a chore (I don’t need to make my own bread by hand every week, or fry and glaze my own doughnuts) so paying someone to cook is out. So, pretty much no need for servants.
I had domestic help for 12 years in China. It was generally GREAT! We had one woman we loved dearly and still keep in touch with that came in the morning, and left after the dinner dishes were in the dishwasher. She cleaned, washed clothes, ironed, made the beds, grocery shopping, either prepped dinner for my wife to cook or actually cooked dinner, and then cleaned up after dinner. She was also a fantastic baby sitter. It was heaven.
When the twins were born, we added two live in nannies for a couple of years. Fantastic. Live in wasn’t my preferred option, but with little twins it made it possible for me to keep my work and travel schedule.
If I could afford it here in the US, I would absolutely have some daytime help. We went through a whole bunch of cleaners and it never worked out. We pay for a gardening service, but I think it’s a huge waste of money since one only needs to mow the lawn about 10 times a year in Seattle.