Menjadi Ibu Rumah Tangga di Turki

Kira-kira apa yang kalian bayangkan menjadi Ibu Rumah Tangga?

Dulu sebelum menikah aku termasuk cewek yang sangat malas mengerjakan pekerjaan rumah tangga makanya aku cari kosan yang semua pekerjaan rumah tangga dikerjakan sama orang lain kecuali beli makan. hehe. Paling pas di rumah ortu ngebantu Mama beres-beres, adik nyuci mencuci piring dan mengepel aku yang nyapu dan nyetrika. Setelah menikah semua pekerjaan tersebut aku lakukan sendiri apalagi tinggal di lingkungan yang tidak biasa menggunakan jasa pembantu rumah tangga. Kenapa? karena disini mahal. Kalo mesen Go clean di Jakarta buat ngebersihin rumah dulu kalo nggak salah mulai dari 50 ribu ya. Kalo disini kita manggil orang untuk ngebersihin rumah kita biayanya mulai dari 100 Lira atau 300 ribu untuk sekali datang. Aku yakin di kota besar macem İstanbul lebih mahal. Makanya orang sini nggak ada yang pake jasa PRT kecuali yang bener-bener kaya raya dan rumahnya besar sekali. Meski suami istri bekerja mereka enggak pake jasa PRT makanya aku salut sama kerja sama mereka.

Lalu gimana pas anaknya masih bayi atau balita? Jadi setelah melahirkan, wanita yang bekerja boleh cuti maksimal 2 tahun (untuk PNS) atau hanya istirahat 3 bulan juga boleh dibebaskan sama pemerintah asalkan tidak lebih dari 2 tahun. Ketika masih bayi pasti mereka membutuhkan bantuan orang lain dan biasanya yang menjaga bayinya ketika si Ibu kerja adalah neneknya. Kalau kasus muridku dia cuti 2 tahun setelah melahirkan. Ketika dia kembali kerja anaknya dititipkan ke tetangganya (babysitter) dan dia membayar ke tetangganya per bulan sekian Lira karena Ibunya nggak mungkin tinggal sama dia karena ada adiknya yang harus diurus di kota lain.

Jadi kira-kira begitu kehidupan rumah tangga dimana suami istri kerja tapi kebanyakan hanya suami saja yang kerja dan banyak yang tidak membolehkan istrinya bekerja. Sekarang bagaimana dengan pekerjaan sehari-hari? Sama seperti pekerjaan IRT (Ibu Rumah Tangga) di seluruh dunia yaitu membersihkan rumah, memasak dan melayani suami. Alhamdulillah banget untuk urusan bersih-bersih di Turki kebantu banget sama mesin. Untuk cuci mencuci baju dan piring kotor pake mesin semuanya jadi pekerjaan yang paling aku nggak suka yaitu mencuci piring sudah dikerjakan sama mesin. Cuci baju juga mesin yang melakukannya jadi kerjaan ku cuman nyetrika (2-3 minggu sekali) dan memvacuum karpet serta mengepel. Mengepelpun seminggu hanya sekali karena enggak kotor. hehe. Kalo memvacum karpet rata-rata tiap dua sampe tiga hari sekali. Alhamdulillah ringan dan aku masih bisa ngajar baik online maupun offline, nerjemahin, nulis blog dan bantu suami ngedit video dan kita juga masih bisa jalan-jalan seminggu sekali buat pacaran. wkwkwkk

Bagaiana dengan urusan dapur? Suami termasuk orang yang hanya mau makan makanan yang fresh habis dimasak jadi aku sering masak. Sehari minimal dua kali untuk makan siang dan malam karena untuk sarapan hanya aku bekali roti, keju, selai, buah zaitun dsb. Suami enggak mau sarapan karena dia pergi kerja jam 6.20 pagi di saat itu matahari belum terbit (musim dingin). Di musim panas kami tinggal di rumah orang tuanya. Kalau pas liburan kaya gini bisa 3 kali aku masak dalam sehari buat sarapan, makan siang dan makan malam. Tapi alhamdulillah ringan karena masakan Turki enggak seribet masakan kita. Untuk makan malam banyak makanan yang dimasak dengan oven jadi tinggal masukin dan tunggu sampe mateng.

Kira-kira begitu pekerjaan IRT di Turki. Bagaimana dengan belanja mingguan dan bulanan? Aku pernah bahas di tulisan sebelumnya kalau pekerjaan ini seringnya suami yang ngerjain. Aku hanya menuliskan daftar yang harus dibeli lalu di akan berbelanja di pasar. Di Turki bukan hal yang aneh jika Bapak pergi ke Pasar. Suamiku tidak membolehkan aku belanja sendiri karena nggak boleh bawa berat. Kadang kita juga belanja bareng kalau aku lagi boring di rumah. hehe

Lalu apakah para suami mau membantu pekerjaan rumah tangga? jawabannya relatif, ada yang mau ada yang enggak tapi kebanyakan mau kalau memang keduanya sibuk apalagi kalau sudah punya anak. Suamiku mau membantu selama bukan urusan bersih-bersih dan cuci-mencuci. Kadang dia bantuin ngevacum karpet atau masukin baju kotor ke dalam mesin cuci. Yang paling ngebantu ya bantuin belanja malah dia yang belanja. Suamiku juga kadang memasak. hehe

 

Being a Housewife in Turkey

What do you imagine to be a housewife?

Before I got married, I was among those who were very lazy to do household work, so I was looking for a boarding house where all the housework was done by other people except buying food. hehe. Just at my parents’ house I help Mom clean up, my sister washed the dishes and mopped while me sweeping and ironing. After I got married, I did all the household work myself as I live in a country where housemaid is not common. Why? because here it’s expensive. If you order Go clean in Jakarta to clean your house if I’m not mistaken started from 50 thousand IDR. If you call someone to clean your house here the cost starts from 100 Lira or 300 thousand. I’m sure in the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara is more expensive. So people here don’t hire housemaid except those who are really rich and their houses are really big. Even though husband and wife work they don’t hire a housemaid, so I really apreciate their teamwork.

Then who take care of your baby or toddler when you work? So after giving birth, women can take leave a maximum of 2 years (for civil servants) or only take a 3-month break, the government give you freedom as long as not more than 2 years. When their child still baby they definitely need help from other people and usually who take care of their babies when they work is their mother. My student took leave 2 years after giving birth. When she come back for working, she drop her child to a babysitter and she pay monthly because her mother live in another city and has her sister and father to be taken care of.

Some husbands don’t allow their wife to work but some allow. Now what about daily work? Just like an housewife throughout the world, daily work is cleaning the house, cooking and serving husband. Thank God for cleaning up machine will do in Turkey. For washing clothes and dirty dishes machine will do, the work that I don’t like the most is washing dishes already done by the machine. My job is just ironing (once in 2-3 weeks) and vacuuming the carpet and mopping. Mopping is only once a week because it’s not dirty. Vacuum the carpet is every two to three days. Alhamdulillah it is not hard and I can still teach both online and offline, translating, writing blogs and helping my husband to edit videos and we can still walk once a week for dating. hehe

How about cooking? my husband is one of them who only want to eat fresh food that just finished cooking. I cook at least twice a day for lunch and dinner because for breakfast I only wrap bread, cheese, jam, olives, etc for him. My husband doesn’t want to have breakfast because he goes to work at 6.20 in the morning when the sun hasn’t risen (in winter). In summer we live in his parents’ house. If we are in holiday or weekends I cook 3 times a day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. But thank God, it’s not that hard because Turkish cuisine is simpler than Indonesian foods. For dinner, a lot of food cooked in the oven, so I just put it inside then wait until it is cooked.

That’s about the housewives’ life in Turkey. What about weekly and monthly groceries shopping? I have discussed it in a previous blog that this job is often done by my husband. I just write down the list to buy and then he will shop at the market. In Turkey it’s so common husbands or men go to the market for groceries shopping. My husband doesn’t allow me to shop alone because he doesn’t me to lift heavy things. Sometimes we shop together if I’m boring at home. hehe

Do husbands want to help their wives to do household? the answer can be yes or no it depends each person. However, most of them want to help if they are both busy especially if they already have children. My husband wants to help me as long as it’s not about cleaning and washing up. Sometimes he helps me vacuum the carpet or put dirty clothes in the washing machine. The most helpful is doing groceries shopping. He also sometimes cook for me. hehe