I've been accused of being lazy because I have someone come in one morning a week to clean my condo. I also know someone who does housecleaning in England who says, "I charge a fortune to women who are too lazy to do their own housework!"

Do you agree, is having a maid a sign of laziness?

At least you are giving someone an honest job. I think Americans have a lot of that Puritan and Pilgrim spirit in our culture. The Puritans thought than enjoying yourself was a sin, and that the harder you worked the closer you would be to God.

I had a maid five times a week when I still lived in South Africa (I now live in the US). It was the lifestyle for people to have maids and was simply part of the culture. My maid used to come in at 7:30 a.m. and go home at 5 p.m. She did absolutely everything - cooked, cleaned, did the laundry, ironed - even wrote up my grocery list.

The adjustment was huge when I moved to the US. The first time I washed a toilet I burst out laughing wondering what my maid would have thought had she seen me! Seven years later though I have come to realize just how little privacy I had having someone in my house daily.

I lived in South Africa in the early 80's. My maid only came in two days a week, and everyone was stunned that I could manage with that. As a single woman, I though that was pretty good.

She didn't make my grocery list, but she rearranged everything in my kitchen to be the way she thought it should be, even though she didn't do any cooking. I moved once, and didn't hang my pictures fast enough to suit her, and when I came home one day, she'd found every leftover nail and hook in the place and hung something. I think she was pretty bored in the time between hanging the washing out and bringing it in to iron.

When I got back, I got a cleaning lady after about a year. I really didn't like doing those toilets.

It is hardly lazy, you are giving somebody work who would not be in work otherwise. I had this experience when I lived in Zimbabwe. We had several maids and garden keepers, they stayed with our family from generation to generation and become part of the family themselves.

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Thanks for the support. Since so many of the people here have lived overseas, I think we probably are more open to the idea of having someone do work in our house.

I moved from South Africa to Oz four months ago. We had a maid once a week when I was a child but when I grew up I just didn't like having anyone working in my home (I'm a ridiculously private person). I don't think it's lazy to have a maid: if you have the money and it suits you, why not? As a few people have said..you are supplying a job.

Yeah, the more I think about it, the more that attitude bugs me. In most of the world, anyone with a decent income is expected to employ servants, to make their lives easier and to provide employment. Why America has adopted this attitude that you can have a PhD in Business, have a great job, and still be doing your own housework is crazy. It's funny that people don't seem to have the same attitude about getting a nanny. Maybe it's because that is seen as a better alternative to day care.