JEDDAH: Parents and teachers have criticized the treatment of maids forced to accompany children to school and act as their personal assistants or chaperons.
……“As soon as students leave their classes, maids are usually seen waiting outside to carry children’s bags to the cars and often they even carry their drinks. It would be an understatement to say this is a little too supercilious.”Most upper and middle class families in Saudi Arabia keep maids. Most parents argue they provide maids to escort their children to schools on safety grounds.“Since I cannot drop my child off to school every morning, she has to go with a driver who I cannot trust completely, So I send my maid along. If my maid has to wait, then she does and that is that,” said Ghada Amdar, 34.Sana Mahmoud, 25, thinks it is a chance for maids to get together and enjoy time off work. “They enjoy the gatherings. I usually send my maid an hour before it is home time for the kids so she can hang out with her friends. She does not mind the wait.”
Private tutors say the idea of using maids is bizarre. “The girls always bring along maids who sit for three hours doing nothing. I have witnessed outrageous incidents where the student uses the washroom and the maid goes in to flush it and clean up after her because her majesty could not be bothered to do so. That is just shameful,” said one of them.