Recruiting domestic workers has adverse effects

RIYADH: Recruiting domestic labor has currently become one of the most contentious issues in the Saudi society.
While some scholars like Dr. Mohsin Shaikh Al-Hassan, the TV host and writer, think that domestic workers are important, others believe it otherwise.
“Drivers, cooks, nannies and farm workers play a vital role, but domestic labor recruitment has adverse effects,” said an expert.
Dr. Abdullah Al-Yusuf, sociology professor at Imam University, said that reliance on a domestic worker will produce a generation that does not depend on itself. “This does not project a good image for a person when he or she grows up and it’s against a parent’s desire for his child be self-reliant,” he said.
He added that reliance on a nanny makes it impossible for a child to do even the simplest task at home or in society when he or she grows up.
He also said that if a nanny stays long with the family, she may become sad because she longs for her family and for this reason she may hurt the child if she complains to her parents.
Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Mohmmed Al-Saleh, a family and psychological counselor, added that it’s not advisable to hire a housemaid if one is starting a family.
He said that the housemaid may lack social skills and this is detrimental to the formation of a happy family bound with love, cooperation and courtesy.
“Having a housemaid without social skills is not good for privacy which should characterize the family right at the beginning,” he said.
Dr. Al-Saleh, also the general supervisor at the Family Development Center in northern Riyadh, said that the problem is not in recruiting a domestic worker in general.
“Rather it‘s determining the need for requiring the introduction of domestic labor,” he said.
He added that domestic employment is originally for assisting in work at home and to do all such acts and functions.