maids

I ate my lunch alone at Red Ribbon today. While I ate my dinuguan I observed three teenagers at the next table. I liked them for their freshness and youth and unselfconscious cheeriness; I was thinking, had I been that pretty? They looked like they got together for an afternoon at the mall, and their day was just starting. How nice for them.

They chatted about their various friends, then they started talking about their household help.

One of them, the one with a short bob cut, said that their maid was unbelievably stupid. Can you imagine, she asked her friends, she started cleaning my room while I was in bed?

The other girl, this one very fair and wearing very short shorts, said their maid was so thoughtless. She arrived after midnight and the maid did not even ask her if she had eaten, or if she needed anything. So she told the maid, "Hoy, ikaw, hampas-lupa ka talaga, asikasuhin mo muna ako." Or something to that effect.

They all laughed. Little Miss Short Shorts added that she would not hesitate to insult the maids if she felt they deserved it.

The third one said they had resorted to numbering the canned goods in the pantry, so that the maid would not be able to take one without them knowing. Since they have a LOT of items in their pantry, it was easy to see if Corned Beef Number 8 had disappeared before Number 7. Maybe they had imported brands, and of course they were not bought for the lowly household help.

They went on, tall-taling each other about their misfortunes in their maids. I stopped liking their fresh faces because of what came out of their mouths. I wished I was their mother, or that I was as rude as them, so I could give them a proper tongue-lashing. It was an ugly thing, to hear them belittling the people they take for granted, the people who help make their lives comfortable.

If that is what being privileged does to those girls, I hope we don't get rich enough to afford maids. I hope my daughters would grow up knowing how to do housework, and that they would know enough to appreciate people as they are, with enough respect, no matter what they do for a living.

And maybe next time I will just sit next to some more old ladies who look interesting.