The musings of a reluctant house-husband aged 40 and three quarters
My redundancy achievements
Housework
Since I got laid off I have taken on new responsibilities and learnt new skills – some of which I’ll admit I am embarrassed that it took me until I was 40 to learn. For example, despite having been a home owner for some fifteen years, I never really appreciated just how much effort it takes to run a house. The cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing alone seem to require constant attention. When you add childcare to the list you suddenly have a full-time job again. My wife used to just manage a load of this stuff, on top of her job, without me really noticing. Admittedly we used to have a cleaner too, that was one of our concessions to both of us working full time – now an unnecessary luxury.
Cooking
I was always a reluctant cook, weekend breakfasts and barbeques being about the limit of my culinary repertoire. These days I am much more accomplished and cook dinner every evening so that it’s on the table when my wife gets home from work. Whilst Jamie Oliver probably wouldn’t be impressed exactly, I am now pretty happy with my curries, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognaise and casseroles. I have even started to get confident enough to experiment with flavours and ingredients. I am still nervous of baking but I am going to give that a go too.
My wife and I have role reversed, she is wearing the trousers as it were and I am him indoors. I have to say that I have much more respect for my wife than I did before and much that has changed will not revert back when I get another job. An unexpected benefit of redundancy is that our relationship is actually better for it. Simply put, I pull my weight when I just didn’t really try hard enough before.
Childcare
Childcare has become an essential aspect of my house-husband world. Every day I now get the kids up, get them breakfasted and dressed and delivered to school. At the end of the school day I pick them up, bring them home, cook their dinner and get them bathed and ready for bed. During the summer holiday and indeed the recent half-term, I was responsible for full time entertainment and behaviour management. Outings included Didcot, Thinktank, The Black Country Living Museum, Duxford, The National Space Centre, The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and Pendon Model Railway.
I have managed to enjoy more time with my children than at any point since they were born (son is eight and daughter is four). I also managed my daughter’s integration into school.
Whilst it has its stressful moments, as every parent will appreciate, I can honestly say that I have had the best summer in years. All in all, I have much better relationships with both of my children than I did before and that, to pinch an expression from Mastercard, is priceless! My four year old daughter used to be pretty mummy clingy but now dad has a proper role to play and value to add.
Decorating and DIY
A lot of DIY work has been done around the house, I was always proficient at that but of course I never seemed to have as much time as I needed.
Running
In 2011 I ran 1,267 miles, by far the longest distance covered in any of the years I have been running. I ran the Birmingham Half Marathon in October and finished in 1:47:08 my personal best to date. It is fair to say that I haven't been sitting around getting fat! Running is good for my health and indeed for my self esteem and it's good to get some fresh air and blow away the cobwebs.
This website
Oh and I planned, created and published this website. Feedback always appreciated so let me know what you think.
Back to 'Observations Home'
Housework
Since I got laid off I have taken on new responsibilities and learnt new skills – some of which I’ll admit I am embarrassed that it took me until I was 40 to learn. For example, despite having been a home owner for some fifteen years, I never really appreciated just how much effort it takes to run a house. The cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing alone seem to require constant attention. When you add childcare to the list you suddenly have a full-time job again. My wife used to just manage a load of this stuff, on top of her job, without me really noticing. Admittedly we used to have a cleaner too, that was one of our concessions to both of us working full time – now an unnecessary luxury.
Cooking
I was always a reluctant cook, weekend breakfasts and barbeques being about the limit of my culinary repertoire. These days I am much more accomplished and cook dinner every evening so that it’s on the table when my wife gets home from work. Whilst Jamie Oliver probably wouldn’t be impressed exactly, I am now pretty happy with my curries, chilli con carne, spaghetti bolognaise and casseroles. I have even started to get confident enough to experiment with flavours and ingredients. I am still nervous of baking but I am going to give that a go too.
My wife and I have role reversed, she is wearing the trousers as it were and I am him indoors. I have to say that I have much more respect for my wife than I did before and much that has changed will not revert back when I get another job. An unexpected benefit of redundancy is that our relationship is actually better for it. Simply put, I pull my weight when I just didn’t really try hard enough before.
Childcare
Childcare has become an essential aspect of my house-husband world. Every day I now get the kids up, get them breakfasted and dressed and delivered to school. At the end of the school day I pick them up, bring them home, cook their dinner and get them bathed and ready for bed. During the summer holiday and indeed the recent half-term, I was responsible for full time entertainment and behaviour management. Outings included Didcot, Thinktank, The Black Country Living Museum, Duxford, The National Space Centre, The Buckinghamshire Railway Centre and Pendon Model Railway.
I have managed to enjoy more time with my children than at any point since they were born (son is eight and daughter is four). I also managed my daughter’s integration into school.
Whilst it has its stressful moments, as every parent will appreciate, I can honestly say that I have had the best summer in years. All in all, I have much better relationships with both of my children than I did before and that, to pinch an expression from Mastercard, is priceless! My four year old daughter used to be pretty mummy clingy but now dad has a proper role to play and value to add.
Decorating and DIY
A lot of DIY work has been done around the house, I was always proficient at that but of course I never seemed to have as much time as I needed.
Running
In 2011 I ran 1,267 miles, by far the longest distance covered in any of the years I have been running. I ran the Birmingham Half Marathon in October and finished in 1:47:08 my personal best to date. It is fair to say that I haven't been sitting around getting fat! Running is good for my health and indeed for my self esteem and it's good to get some fresh air and blow away the cobwebs.
This website
Oh and I planned, created and published this website. Feedback always appreciated so let me know what you think.
Back to 'Observations Home'
