A tidy house is a wasted life

I have tried and failed on numerous occasions to persuade my wife that we need an au pair, someone to ease the daily burden of keeping a largish house clean and free of dust, unwashed clothing, cat hair, dirty dishes, discarded newspapers, and so on.  She has not so far been persuaded.  Nonetheless my scheme has a great deal to commend it.  An  employment opportunity for a young woman, still the gender more discriminated against in the job market.  An employment opportunity for a migrant worker, for we hold no truck with racial discrimination.  And think of the fringe benefits, not least of which is the freeing up of all that time to engage in more fruitful and leisurely pursuits - painting, cycling, hillwalking, reading.  For is there not truth in the old saw that 'a tidy house is a wasted life'?  As Richard Dawkins, author of the seminal work 'The Selfish Gene' would undoubtedly recognise, my suggestion for a (female) au pair is entirely altruistic.  But still my wife proves stubbornly resistant to the idea and I can't think why.