Now I Am Not My Own Cleaning Lady...

Our domestic helper comes in every day between 2pm to 6pm. Sunday is her day off. But she usually has one or two days out of the week when she leaves a couple of hours early because we go out to eat with friends. On her regular day, she shops for groceries, cleans the apartment and cooks the dinner for us.

This morning she called me up and said she couldn’t come this afternoon because her birthday is coming up tomorrow and she needs to shop for the party. What am I left to say? She already took the day off. I could have asked her to come tomorrow to make it up. But it’s going to be her birthday and her supposed day off. She won't be comoing for two days. So what? I did what she does for me all along myself. Just I don’t remember I ever asked to have my day off from work on my birthday unless it fell on a weekend or I used my vocation.

The husband and I are not keen on this person. The most difficult thing to bear is her breath. I used to work with a guy who had that problem and I was plotting to write an anonymous letter to him. For the time being, I tried to keep a distance from her. That doesn’t seem to be a solution. It's also difficult to ask her to leave already because I don’t want to cause problem to anybody including her. Taking a day off for her birthday like this will certainly help me to look for options.