Is Cross-Dressing the Key to Making Work and Family Work?

Being a professional married couple

I think it's pretty stressful being a professional married couple, especially if there are a few sprogs in the mix. I mean, there's just too much to do. Careers to fulfil, bosses to handle, nannies to manage, children to dress, homework, in-laws, travel... the list goes on and on.

And of course, in between it all you want to stay fit, socialise, dress well, and just maybe find a bit of 'me time', as well as keeping the flame of pre-marriage romance alive. It's actually stressful just blogging about it.

Who hasn't sneaked an extra two minutes in the shower just because it's about the only place you're safe?

Maintaining any relationship isn't easy

If you have all this "stuff" coming at you it's very easy to see how the "relationship" element of what we call life can get thrown out with the bath water. She just doesn't understand why he doesn't do more - while he doesn't understand her pressures, and always manages to say the wrong thing.

For his part, his wife has turned into a control-freak and he doesn't know why. Hmmm. It's not easy. But I might have a solution.

Is it time to switch roles?

My Family Care is now properly qualified as an SME. Revenue in eight digits (just), over 200 staff, and plenty of growing pressures as a result. Getting things done around here has become a lot more difficult. At least we have a plan.

Forcing different people in different parts of the business to spend time understanding and occasionally even doing other people's jobs has been brilliant. If you can genuinely see the other person's point of view, then creating solutions rather than problems becomes a whole lot easier.

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Could professional married couples try some of the same tricks? Yes, they could. She could entertain the children whilst he does the packing; she could change the light bulbs whilst he cooks dinner; he could wrap presents whilst she finds out that chatting to other dads at football really is as easy as it sounds.

I'm not advocating sharing wardrobes (yet), but everything else should be tried. It might just be the key to making work and family work!

Ben Black