Free House Cleaning Service for Women Undergoing Chemo
Decatur Metro | January 31, 2011 | 10:56 amA reader sends in this excellent info about a program set up a national organization that provides free house-cleaning services for women undergoing chemotherapy. Here’s the info…
If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning – once per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service. This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women. It’s our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care. Be a blessing to someone and pass this information along.
http://www.cleaningforareason.org/
Hope this can help out some local folks!
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thanks! What a great idea. Just sent it to a friend.
This is wonderful. When my mom was going through chemo years ago, I recall her saying that she was weary of people asking how they could help her– she just wanted someone to come and clean the house. There are probably many others who feel the same way!
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This sounds like a helpful service. Unfortunately, it’s incredibly flawed and heteronormative. This assumes that women going through chemo are the only ones who would benefit from the service, essentially implying that housework is only for women. C’mon people, get with the times. This should be offered for ANYONE battling cancer, regardless of their gender.
Holy S…. This one just might take the cake. Talk about trying to squeeze blood from a turnip. Nothing here, nothing to see, just keep it moving— PLEASE. This is a wonderful service, offered for free, by people volunteering their time, to help out people going through cancer. I have a friend in Nashville who volunteered her time to raise money for this. I never knew she was such a Heteronormative B.
Why don’t YOU start of the organization that cleans for male patients during cancer? Sounds like you’d be perfect – especially since you’re a chick.
I couldn’t have said it better. I don’t like to bust overmuch on other comments, but that one just seemed the prototypical example of no good deed going unpunished. On the other hand, it did manage to use “heteronormative” in a sentence…
Wow, ya’ll need to chill out. I never said it was a bad service. I just think it should be open to everyone suffering from cancer. I know plenty of men with chronic illnesses that could benefit from this service. Sorry if the big words scared you.
Doesn’t incredibly flawed = bad?
No, the service itself is a great idea, and so are the people who volunteer to do it.
However, the idea that only women going through cancer need this service is what is flawed. It makes assumptions about gender roles — that women are the only ones that would benefit from this service because they are ~clearly~ the only people clean in a household. When I was growing up, my Dad was the one who took care of most of the domestic duties, not my mom.
Just pointing out the obvious.
*only people who clean
LOL! Sugar-dumplin’, your big words don’t scare us– they just make it appear that you feel you need to hide behind them to beat us over the head with your equality argument. I was honestly trying to give you a back-handed compliment (with an attempt at humor that obviously failed– but that’s the danger of a soundless medium), b/c I thought you kinda sorta had a point; however, the tone of your original post rang rather sharp and uncompromising. I don’t think you’ll find a group of folks anywhere who appreciate discrimination less than DM posters do. It’s just that most of us don’t feel the need to kill moquitoes with a baseball bat.
¡Gooooooolllllll!
Really, if someone has a problem deciding which stale, academic theory by which to live their lives–feminism or queer theory, in this case–they should take the time to figure it out themselves; before they post on a neighborhood blog.
No personal attacks NotSusan.
LOL! I hear that heteronormativity is really hot right now
Priceless. He had me at “postbestial tendencies of American empire”…
Allow me to cut through all the textbook terminology to say that I think cl has a valid point, although I would not have broached it in the same fashion. I am a man. I do much (most?) of the house cleaning in our home. Two years ago, I went through three months of intensive chemo for testicular cancer, which rendered me unable to complete any of those usual chores. But I would not have been eligible for this charity simply because I’m a guy?
Please don’t misunderstand me. I think this is an amazing charity and I support what they’re doing 100%. Furthermore, I understand that they have limited resources and have to draw the line somewhere. But I guess I just find it a little disheartening that that line is gender. Because men do do housework, and we are not strong all the time.
Boy, would I have LOVED having this kind of service when I went through 6 months of chemo! It’s not the kind of thing I would ASK for, but if someone offered to do it, I sure would have said “yes”. I couldn’t possibly afford a commercial cleaning service at that time, so lots of things just stayed in various stages of dust bunnies and deterioration until I was really on my feet again. I think it sounds like a MARVELOUS program, and I think it should be extended to men also. Perhaps the presumption in any male cancer patient’s case is that there is already a woman available to do his cleaning for him. I am a fervent feminist, and don’t define myself according to any housewifely duties or activities, but it is a realistic need that this program is offering to fulfill. Bravo for them!
I don’t know I would have said it as strongly as cl, but I was sorta thinking the same thing about it’s odd it’s focused on women with cancer. So I guess being a single guy, if I had cancer, they wouldn’t be willing to clean my place because I’m not a woman? Do they assume I don’t clean it, that I hire someone? Sounds like a really nice program, but I am a little offended that it’s gender specific, honestly.
It sounds more insulting really to women than men, implying that if I had cancer, I could find a woman to clean for me, so I don’t need the service?
This probably won’t make you feel any better, but here’s their reason for focusing on women only: http://www.cleaningforareason.org/contactus.html
>>Why women only?
We do provide this service only to females with any type of cancer. As with any nonprofit organization, the resources are limited. The demand is always greater than what we are capable of handling regardless as to whom we serve. We understand that males undergo the same life crisis issues; however, we cannot serve everyone. Daily we have inquiries to assist individuals with disabilities, heart problems, MS, asthma and various other chronic medical conditions which all have a need for the services. Naturally, the list is endless. We hope you understand that we have to stay focused on what we have decided to be our primary mission.<<
I can dig it.
and of course resources are always limited in such a good service. But just as I hate gender biases against women… I was talking to a friend about this, and she said it’s okay because men get so much normally more than women. So I guess two wrongs make a right.
I guess I just can’t “dig” any form of *intentional* gender bias.
Just because you choose to help a particular group of people it doesn’t mean that you are anti-others. Is this group anti-children because the don’t help kids, anti-dog because they don’t help animals with cancer?
Amen to that. The social safety net needs to be built from a near-infinite number of sources, each performing a manageable piece of larger goals. Almost every criticism of government provided social services has some basis in inefficiency or waste associated with one entity trying to do everything. I’m not arguing that point, for or against. Only suggesting that if there are people kind-hearted and motivated enough to recognize a need and then make some attempt to fill it, pointing out their weaknesses or limitations is lame.
are there a lot of children or dogs who are the primary people/animals who clean the house? If so, then sure, but I don’t suspect so.
Of course there are worse things in this world than this. Of course the organization has the right to decide how they want to spend their resources. But…I have the right to feel that it leaves a bad taste in my mouth…and I have the right to not support them. And I have the right (if I want to) to tell my male (gay or straight & single) patients undergoing chemo that a program like this exists, but only for women (so they can let the organization know their disappointment in being excluded, or can set up their own group that doesn’t limit based on gender).
So I admit to also asking myself, “why aren’t men included?”
Then, even though I’m a guy, I thought about it and realized that I didn’t give a damn. This is a great service, whether it be for men, women or other.
Cleaning for a Reason should be applauded, not picked apart for choosing their clientele due to limited resources.
What!? You mean we’re not living in the 1950s anymore?
Lord, this whole thread just made my head throb. Or is that cancer of my heteronormative gland? Ack!
My money’s on your gland.
Actually, the pain started right after I showed the woman of the house this thread and suggested that she either clean the kitchen or get cancer so that someone else would. Some people just cannot take a joke. I may have to rethink this whole marriage thing. After all, it’s just an outdated convention of a paternalistic society anyway, right?
In my defense, it’s Tuesday…;-)
“…it’s just an outdated convention of a paternalistic society anyway, right?”
Except if you’re not heterosexual, right?
Excellent joke by the way, misogyny and cancer in one shot, good work.
But there are no non-heterosexuals in Decatur, right? Right?
Now the double negatives and sexual identity confusion are making my head hurt even more! We should really be having this conversation at the Brick Store. Seriously, wouldn’t some of these DM threads pair nicely with good beer? Heteronormity and Hoegarden…Westchester and Weihenstephaner…Dollar General and…well, I guess Brick Store doesn’t sell 40’s of cheap American swill to commemorate the old Big H, but we probably need shots of Jager to make that discussion bearable anyway…