The Role of Maids in the United Arab Emirates

In the current societal setting, it is almost an inevitable practice to hire the services of maids. Most households prefer to secure permanent services with specific individuals, while others make the decision to acquire only half-day services. The type of arrangement chosen often depends on the time schedule of the parents or the guardians of the children (Stancanelli & Stratton, 2014). In the current setup, where the majority of families have both parents going to work during the day or at night, it is only logical to have a maid who is tasked with taking care of the baby. The mode of treatment, mutual respect, and the remuneration for the maids’ work are crucial in determining their desire to show commitment to the duties they perform. This paper intends to regard the influence that maids have on the lives of Emirati children and to highlight such specific elements as religion, language skills, and behavior development.

Maids have a direct effect on the lives of Emirati children. The language skills that children acquire are often first imparted by the maids. For children, language learning manifests in the form of mimicking the accent and the dialect they hear from the adults. There is a lot of aping among children during their initial stages of development (Lyons, Morgan, Thomas, & Al Hashmi, 2013). They tend to replicate all the tiny details of the elements they observe in people around them. Therefore, with the maids as the only people that are always around them, the first communication skills children acquire are usually sourced from the maids. The accent of the maids will be taken up by the children in addition to the typical non-verbal cues and body language that they use. As such, it is crucial that the background of the potential maids for hiring is reviewed, so that the parents could be certain that their language use is suitable and would not have any negative impacts on the children in the course of their early development.

The religion of the children is also an aspect acquired in light of the influence that they are subjected to by the environment. Children are never affiliated with any religious practices, but they adopt the conventional norms that they are introduced to and made to understand the ideal forms of behavior depending on the societal setup. When maids are left at home with children, they are likely to go along with them to their worship denominations (Stocker & Ghuloum, 2014). The parents tend to be occupied, leaving the maids with a limited choice but to let the children accompany them to most places that they go. The reflex action in learning that is always conditioned bears the implication that the kids would acquire and recognize the religion that they are introduced to by the maids as being the most ideal. Consequently, they soon start to associate with it.

The behavior and manners of the Emirati children widely depend on the norms that are inculcated in them by the maids. Behavior of children is often shaped by the traits and the personality of the people around them as they grow up. Shaping up the habits of children often requires disciplinary steps, so that any naughty aspects, common at the initial stages of development, are aligned. However, such steps are often impossible when the maids take charge, because of the stringent regulations that parents impose in regard to punishing their children (Lyons et al., 2013). Due to this fact, the children’s development is often left unchecked. All the habits they acquire from their games with peers and by watching television have the chance to thrive due to the limited control that the maids may have. The ill-mannered nature of most maids is also likely to be taken up by the children.

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The maids have a direct influence on the lives of children, given that they are always present and are the most dependable people that the kids may run to when faced with a challenge. Some of the common problems among the children may not be effectively handled, because of the incompetence of some of the maids in teaching children about the essential concepts of life. The children are likely to develop behavioral disorders when the fears they face are not resolved. A backlog of the challenges has the direct implication that the kids’ behavior would dwindle and fail to meet the minimum standards expected, which would not have happened if the parents had been the ones raising them up on their own (Stocker & Ghuloum, 2014).

The mothers depend on the maids to take care of the children. In the course of daily engagements to fend for the family, they entrust the critical task of the upbringing of their children to the maids. They never have time to be around the children to teach them valuable life skills as they hoped to (Mahdavi, 2013). They are, therefore, obliged to make do with the little that the maids can do. The morals of the children may be subpar when the parents are completely withdrawn, because the longest time they spend with the children in a week is two days, during the weekends.

The long periods of time that the maids spend at home usually result in children becoming more attached to them than to their parents. The maids are there to witness the progress made by the children in the various stages of development. They oversee the challenges and the fears that the youngsters face. As such, the kids are bound to be more attached to the maids that they are to the parents. The bonding associated with the time spent together frequently results in some degree of trust being developed. The two can determine their strengths and weakness and establish the limits of their association and engagement. Cooperativeness of kids usually emanates from the determination and the level of tolerance that the adults around them sustain (Khalifa & Nasser, 2015). Therefore, they appear to desist from actions with the potency of irking the adults. Such an understanding is the cause of the children’s attachment to the maids.

The significant role of the mothers is primarily transferred to the maids. The detachment bears the implication that there is no parent-child relationship established. The parents lack the ability to solve the common challenges their children face since they do not know the suitable approach to use to connect to them (Baker, 2013). They are not free to discuss some sensitive subjects with the children in the shape of sexuality, drug abuse, and co-curricular activities as they grow up. The inevitable perspective that comes into the fold is the rebellion of the children and possible engagement in drug abuse and gangs, which portray the parents’ failure explicitly.

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Considering the aforementioned facts, it is clear that the role of the maids is crucial in nurturing Emirati children in the absence of the parents. Most of the significant life skills are imparted by the babysitters because of the association and relationship they establish with children. Language proficiency, religion, manners are also determined by the close bonds formed. The maids have a crucial role to play, given the direct contact, they have with children. Their daily presence with children equips them with an understanding of the challenges and the changes that the child undergoes. As such, cases of illness would mostly be determined by the babysitters as the result of the long periods of time they spend monitoring the children.