BloodHenge wrote:
Why would you want a personal assistant to open the front door for you?
Ah, a fine, modern middle-class viewpoint.
There are two equally important reasons to have servants: first, to perform labor that you or your household would have to do themselves, and second, to indicate your superior social status. For example, practically speaking, no one should really need more than a dozen servants to do the work of transporting a noble across country, but a duke in 15th Century England could easily travel with several hundred attendants, while an Italian banker of the same period--wealthier by far--would take along a thousand people to travel to a city a few days away. The fancy clothes, the gilded carriage, the silver place settings, and the servants all show off your wealth.
To keep these people busy and make your place in the hierarchy known in every possible way, you assign the servants any minor task that might be seen as taking up your time, inconveinciing you in any way, or show you as performing some service for a guest. Answering the door, pouring the coffee, and answering the phone all would take seconds of your time, but having the housekeeper/butler perform these acts shows publicly that you do not have to expend that time and reminds your guest/caller that you are not his servant in any small way.
For examples, watch any British or American movie or TV show involving servants and set before about 1965. Chances are that if there is one maid, housekeeper, or butler/valet/manservant in the house, answering the phone and the door is understood to be one of his/her jobs.
Meji's mom answering her own door suggests she has fallen a considerable distance in society.