Grandparents, husbands, or wives for hire
Jukka Vuorinen
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Sirpa Vuori
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By Pauliina Grönholm
A new service company called Mummit (“Grannies”) links retired but fit people to help as babysitters and assistants for the elderly.
Mummit is one of a new types of services that have previously been based on volunteer work, organised by groups such as the Red Cross and the Mannerheim League of Child Protection.
“There aren’t enough volunteers. In addition this is a good way for retired grandmothers to be usefully active, and to earn extra money on top of their pension”, says Michael Wolontis, who set up the service a year ago.
“Grandmothers are suitable as babysitters, and for care of the elderly, as they have lengthy experience with children, or correspondingly, in caring for next of kin.”
This new type of service could prove beneficial in an economy where extending people’s working careers is seen as a worthy goal.
However, not all volunteer activities can be replaced by paid services, says Sari Sarlio-Siintola, who is writing her doctoral dissertation on the development of welfare services for the aged.
“A key question is if we are also losing something important from the point of view of human well-being”, Sarlio-Siintola ponders.
The gender roles in the services that are on offer are quite traditional: the men do handyman work, and the women help with the housekeeping.
Petteri Ikonen, who runs the “husband service” on the internet, is also looking for “rental wives” to work for the service, after some of his clients would not believe that men might be good at ironing.
“Older customers and young women did not want to have men coming in to clean their homes”, Ikonen says.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 28.3.2011
PAULIINA GRÖNHOLM / Helsingin Sanomat
pauliina.gronholm@hs.fi
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| 29.3.2011 - THIS WEEK |
 Grandparents, husbands, or wives for hire |
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