Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay & a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
Kindle & Audible: US or CA
Morning Readers & Happy Thursday!
Let me first preference this review with a bias;
I am a single mother and wanna-be-blogger, who is working as many hours as possible while putting myself through school for Landscape Architecture. I grow a vegetable garden to ease the grocery bill, moved into a ‘tiny home’ because it’s cheaper than rent and I started this blog as a way to justify taking the time to read while maintaining a sense of productivity.
I read a couple reviews claiming the book as ‘self-pity’ or repetitive, as being uninteresting. And I am so happy for these people, that they are not able to connect with what the author is saying. That reading the book does not send them down a rabbit whole of reliving those shared experiences, of re-feeling that same shared shame, frustration and hopelessness.
I’ve skirted poverty out of sheer will and luck of family and good friends. I have never been homeless or on food stamps, but I understand what it is to take your tax return to the grocery store because you can finally afford a steak. That is this book. It is a hard look at our economy, and is terrifying when you realize that the book was actually published in 2019, and the lived experience years prior. Since then our global economy, especially here in Canada and in the US, has tanked since Covid.
In my region the living wage is considered to be $45,600 while the median wage is $45, 500. This does not take into account dependents (children), and already means that if you are a single person with a median wage, you are probably living a form of poverty. As of today, in my province, at least 4 cities have declared ‘food emergencies’ as 1 in 3 households are experiencing food insecurity,
This book highlights an issue that is so near and dear to my heart that it broke reading it, and I truly believe it needs to be brought to the forefront more often. and I love books for that, that these stories can be constantly rediscovered and shared.
Overall a great read but these few moments really hit home:
“Every single parent teetering on poverty does this. We work, we love, we do. And the stress of it all, the exhaustion, leaves us hollowed. Scraped out. Ghosts of our former selves.”
“A single mom who worked full-time. “What you’re trying to do here is pretty much impossible,” he told me, referring to the course load I had signed up for on top of my other responsibilities.”
“If I didn’t get my assignments done during the week, I caught up on weekends when Mia went to Jamie’s. I could work ahead on assignments. Each class blurred into the other.”
“If I’d learned anything, when you’re teetering on the bring of making it, you always lose your balance and fall…Even dreaming seemed like something I couldn’t afford.”
“How can barely surviving be an inspiration, I started to ask.”
Of course, this book is about the journey, and realizing it’s based on the author’s lived experience we know that ultimately she ended up being able to share that story. Not just that, this book, well deservedly, became not only a New York Times Best Seller, but it also became a Netflix adaptation.
Ultimately this book gives the hope that no matter the struggles we may go through in life, we can strive to change that with each step we take, whether it’s a small step in the right direction, or a complete leap of faith.
Whatever you may be going through right now, I hope that you continue to take your own steps in the direction of your dreams, wherever that may lead, and that the right book finds you along way way. Happy Reading!
-Anna R.
*As always if you purchase through any of the links in this post, or throughout this blog, a small commission comes back to help support the page & what I do here!
Kindle & Audible: US or CA
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