Houseboy

Originally written January 9, 2004:

Since my brother has been deployed in Afghanistan, I have had a new interest in the country. I'm reading a book called, "Letters from Afghanistan" about an American couple who lived there in the 1960s. The afghan people have something that we have not yet discovered in our advanced, high-tech society: houseboys.

A houseboy is a teenage boy who comes to your home and is at your beck and call. In exchange for meager wages, he is basically your estate manager/maid/cook/gardener/butler/whatever else. If you're lucky, you might even have two. The author of the book actually complains at one point that she doesn't have enough to do because her houseboy does everything for her--including making her bed--and seems to know what she wants done before she says it. That sounds rough.

I told my husband that I needed a houseboy and he said, "You already have one...me." I have to admit, he is great at doing housework. Better than me most of the time. But he's at work all day earning that darn stuff you can't do without: money.

As a homemaker in the 21st century and with all of the modern conveniences that are available to me, I would still trade it all (well, at least my toaster) to have an extra set of hands attached to someone who could read my mind. Know any teenage boys that are up for the job?