Choose domestic workers carefully

This week, we ran a story of a housemaid who was arrested on suspicion that she killed her boss’ baby. (Koboko police arrest maid over death of baby, Daily Monitor, March 15). Police is still investigating the cause of the death of the baby.

While not many cases have been reported of housemaids killing children left in their custody, a number of stories have run in the media highlighting how housemaids mistreat children in their care.

About two years ago, a video clip of a housemaid brutally beating a baby went viral on social media. The video clip was recorded by the baby’s father who installed cameras in his house that captured every moment.

Not many parents install cameras in their houses to capture what goes on at home in their absence so they are ignorant about how housemaids treat or mistreat their children when they are away.

Once in a while, the media has run stories of maids molesting children and in some cases infecting them with HIV.

There are numerous cases of housemaids mistreating children. It is for that reason that the issue of maids should be taken more seriously than ever to protect children from assault, molestation and any other kind of abuse that might even cause death.

Many times, we hire strangers to take care of our homes without doing any background check to know who they are before deciding whether to hire them or not.

Most of the housemaids are not trained and those hiring them do not give them any basic training in taking care of the children and the entire home.

Some maids believe in dispensing corporal punishment when it comes to disciplining children in their custody. People hiring maids must teach them the best ways to discipline children when they misbehave.

In many cases, children spend more time with maids than they do with their parents, so they should be given skills in handling children.

Maids have become part of our families and therefore should be treated as such. There are cases of people who mistreat them over a simple misunderstanding. Treat housemaids fairly and with respect so that they do not mistreat your children in retaliation.
The issue: Domestic workers.
Our view: Housemaids have become part of our families and therefore should be treated as such. There are cases of people who mistreat maids over a simple misunderstanding. Treat maids fairly and with respect so that they do not mistreat your children in retaliation.