Whatever happened to the housekeeper?

Over the years I have heard stories from both my mother and father about the housekeepers their families employed while they were growing up. More recently, my grandparents had a housekeeper who came in once a week for 25 years to clean and iron until they moved into the retirement community. My employer has had a housekeeper for years also (though this is her last week).

Now my mothers parents were in no way upper class. They fit firmly into the middle class, my grandfather worked and my grandmother stayed at home, and yet they still had someone who would come in daily and clean and help take care of the kids. She was with the family for probably 20+ years.

My father's mother was a widow, and they lived with her parents who had a live-in housekeeper/ cook who was also with the family for many years. My great-grandfather was a doctor, and I believe my grandmother also worked at the hospital but I'm not sure how much.

My parents even went through a series of cleaning ladies over the years. It wasn't a constant thing, someone who would work for a few years and then quit and it would take a while to find someone else, that sort of thing. My father worked, and my mother had a business she ran from the house, but I wouldn't say we were upper class either.

But I look around at my generation, and women are expected to do it all - clean, cook, childcare, work outside the home or not. There are very few people who have any sort of inside help (weekly, daily, or live-in). People seem more likely to have a lawn service than a cook or housekeeper. It looks like there are plenty of maid services (Molly Maid, etc.) but I'm not sure how they work, if you get the same cleaning crew every week or not. They certainly wouldn't build a relationship with a family, enough to do things over and above cleaning (such as ironing or emergency child care). I certainly don't know anyone my age who has even a short-term relationship with a housekeeper.

When did this shift occur? Do people no longer have the money for the extra help or does no one want to be the help? Are women really being asked to take on more than we had been in years past, or are the houses just bigger, making cleaning house that much more work? I know from experience it's a lot easier and quicker to clean a 1200 sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 2 bath townhouse than a 3000+ sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath house.

You are probably asking why I'm writing about this? Well, because I am tired of making dinner, and I am tired of cleaning my house and really wish that there was someone else to do it. It would be nice to come home from work to a clean house with dinner preparations already underway (I could live with doing the finishing bits, as long as I don't have to come up with what to make).

I am crossing my fingers that the pets will have cleaned the house today and came up with something for dinner by the time I come home. What do you think my chances are? Yeah, me too!