More Work Life Balance – Retiring a Spouse For More Freedom?
by Susan Sly
It seemed like a good idea at the time; something we had romanticized. Imagine defying the much loved American Dream and creating a new one for ourselves. By âretiringâ my well-educated, professional husband from his self-proclaimed boring career as a C.P.A., we could now be together, at home, present for our children, never missing a daytime recital, taking vacations when we wanted to, not worrying about sick days, and essentially living life on our own terms. We were looking for a greater sense of work-life balance, and it seemed like our own version of paradise.
We set a number – one that I would achieve in the home-based business I had started. It had to be multiple six figures in order to not only replace my husbandâs salary, but also to give us a healthy buffer should the income fall. I donât think my husband actually believed I would do it, thus when it happened, I demanded he live into his end of the bargain and come home.
So did we obtain more work life balance?
The early days were filled with a mixture of euphoria and shock. My husband did not know what to do with himself, and suddenly, I had this thirty-six-year-old man puttering around the house aimlessly. I had thought that he would assist me in business, an assumption that would later lead to fighting disappointment, hiring coaches, and eventually going to therapy. The reality was that we had achieved our goal; however, we had spent more time dreaming about all of the joys of this new era in our lives and somehow conveniently forgotten to really dig into what our new roles would be.
My husband had been the primary income earner for years. When I took maternity leave with our son, he out-earned me three to one. As my business grew and I was paying more in taxes than he was earning, I reasoned that his work was actually costing us money. I thought that we could work together and be equal partners. I didnât anticipate him being so lost. Here was a man entering his prime in terms of climbing the corporate ladder and now he was relegated to diaper duty, carpooling, and trying to figure out how he fit. Needless to say, he went back to work, taking a new job as a corporate comptroller.
More work life balance or more issues?
He was miserable at his job. He vented about the commute. He complained about the bureaucracy. Although he found himself enjoying the feeling of importance, we once again dreamed of him coming home. I got pregnant with our third child and he did come home only to feel lost all over again. There were fights. There were tears. And he went back to work again, this time as CFO of a drug company.
The complaining began again. He was bored. He didnât like his job. I wanted to rescue him, so we decided that he would come home once and for all. We reasoned that this time he would help me in business. We would hire him a coach and he would figure out his role. He came home and tried, in his own, way to figure out how to find his purpose. We fought again. He criticized the way I was doing things. There was resentment; however, this time he didnât go back. Now, after being home for almost eight years, he still feels lost and this has caused a great deal of acrimony on both of our parts.
I donât like to live with regret, but this was definitely not the life we had envisioned when we initially discussed my husband coming home. It took two of us to make the decision, and we both wonder if it was the right one.
This didn’t appear to be the key to the more work life balance we had been seeking.
What I didnât anticipate was the intense feels of pressure of being the sole income earner, and the mommy, and the person who plans every vacation, doctorâs visit, and orchestrates our lives. As a work-life balance expert, I have found ways to create daily balanced moments, but living with someone who canât seem to find their groove after all this time can definitely detract from what would otherwise be quite a beautiful existence.
Four out of ten American households have a woman as either the sole or primary income earner, according to a study conducted by Pew Research. Some of these households, approximately twenty-five percent, are run by single mothers.
Nonetheless, that leaves a healthy fifteen percent of homes with a woman at the income helm. For some, this may feel liberating and perhaps garner an, âitâs about time.â
For others, this version of more work life balance creates a new role reversal with undertones of stress, as we attempt to navigate areas that our parents were not as likely to experience.
My friend, a corporate executive with three young children, relocated to the U.S. with her family. Under her work visa, her husband was not able to work. He sulked around the house and took every opportunity to vent his frustration at her. She was running a massive, international team during the day, essentially living into her dream job, and coming home to a sullen, passive aggressive husband. She finally laid down the law and threatened divorce. He got himself together and things are good now. She credits getting honest, setting new boundaries, and very specific ground rules on saving her marriage.
In our life, my husband eventually came to a place whereby he assumed the role of CFO of our companies, liaised with the numerous lawyers and accountants, and although perhaps this is not his passion, it is his area of conscious competency. He wasnât ready to embrace the world of entrepreneurship; he likes certainty and low-risk. I, on the other hand, only know this life â growing up in a family business and starting my own business at the age of eleven. Although I like a degree of certainty, I am fully aware that running businesses comes with levels of exposure to variables that are anything but certain. Today, almost seventeen years into our relationship, we are finding our stride.
I work with many women who dream of retiring their partners and creating a new paradigm. For those of us who have done it, the stories tend to be similar â initial euphoria, disappointment, and even resentment by both parties. It doesnât have to be that way, as I have met several couples who have successfully been able to figure out a way to make things work, even if it means re-thinking the dream and having the partner go back to work on a full or part-time basis.
If you think retiring a spouse will help you obtain or achieve more work-life balance, my advice to anyone considering bringing their partner home would be the following:
1. Stop Fantasizing and Get Real
Set aside several hours to talk about the reality of what it will be like when you are both at home. Make a list of all of the daily chores and activities and get honest about who will do what. Creating clarity around expectations is critical.
2. Have The ‘Money’ Talk
If you are the primary income earner, how is it going to feel when you are literally giving your partner an allowance? What will happen when they buy you a gift and you know exactly how much of your money was spent? If a partner is coming home, they have to have access to funds â how much, how often, and will there be stipulations on spending? Who will âcontrolâ the money? When I coach people in this situation, I recommend having a joint bank account and also separate discretionary accounts to help to retain a degree of empowerment.
3. Re-Define Your Roles
When my husband earned more money and had a job outside the house, I had a role, and so did he. There were expectations in these roles. You may not think you are living into roles in your relationship, but trust me â you are either consciously or subconsciously living into some form of expectation, which inherently is defined as a role. When one partner decides to stay home, the roles will shift. Old patterns from childhood may surface. You might come home from a hard day at work and find that the house is a disaster. Your partner was there all day and didnât clean up. Now you are furious, because like it or not, you had expectations and they were not living into their role.
4. Meet Outside the Home
Having a neutral place to discuss topics that may be heated is essential. If you have children, avoid talking topics that may be contentious as they will always pick up on this energy. Children are exceptionally intuitive. My husband and I have our discussions when we run in the morning. This allows us to be out in nature and get anything off our chests that requires clearing.
5. Hire a Mediator
A coach or a trained therapist can act as a mediator when it comes to redefining roles and the challenges that come as a result of change. A good mediator will be neutral, unbiased, and help you define common goals. Marriages can often be saved with the right third party.
Lastly, if you are contemplating âretiringâ your partner, or already have, remember why you did it in the first place. What was it you were both dreaming of? Was the goal greater work-life balance by having one, or both of you, at home? If you can remember why you did something in the first place and capture some form of excitement, you will be just fine. All change comes with a degree of discomfort; knowing that ahead of time can help you navigate the fulfilling, and possibly frustrating, existence of bringing your partner home.
Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of five children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Raw and Real! Susan, Thank you! I am so glad I read this today. I did have that dream of him coming home and finally being part of my business (our business, I called it but he always said it was mine as he wasn’t interested in it at all.) It would upset me. We would fight about his lack of interest in being part of this amazing business. This would slow me down. Make me feel that what I was doing wasn’t right, etc. And remember those are/were my feelings and he couldn’t understand why I felt those feelings. Finally I decided to step back and not have him be any part of the business and let him do what he loved to do. It has definitely worked out much better. My business came to basically a stop two years ago when my momma was diagnosed with terminal cancer – Acute Myeloid Leukemia. She passed away this past March 21st. I am still not back to my business, but I have started doing the things I needed to do – decluttering, therapy, yes, I have needed therapy for a few years now, but never felt I did even though all three of my daughters said it would help me. This August 7th, I will be celebrating as a 9 year Breast Cancer survivor.
On June 26th, after over 30 some years of working in the field and career my husband has loved he can officially retire, but he decided to stay at his place of work until August 31st. And no, he still has no intentions of being part of my business. I have accepted that. It is a great feeling to no longer fight about something that just isn’t meant to be. On January 25th, I celebrated 7 years with my amazing company and how far I have come with my health, mentally, physically and emotionally since then.
Thanks so much for sharing this. I want my hubby to retire ‘early’. These questions are important. I have one vision of how I would like us to be together working our busines. Maybe vacations and him playing tennis all the time! Thanks for the heads up. I’m sure my hubby hasn’t given a thought to not working outside of the home!
Thank you for sharing Susan Sly, you are always giving your all to yourself and us. As I am building my business with my girlfriend, this is an amazing incite that I know we only help during our journey. Thank you Ed Chasan
Thank you, Susan. This is exactly what I need to hear, as my husband is 66 this year. He still likes to work but is getting tired of being a teacher. His plan is to work two more years so that he can continue to coach his lacrosse team. After that he’s going to have to hang it up, As his teaching career with alternative high school students is very stressful. We need to have the kinds of conversations you are speaking of, as during the summer (my busy season at work), when he is home and I am working 7 days a week, the house is usually a disaster, and we rely way too much on take out meals. I res my the lack of help during the summer, and if he is home all year it will only get worse.
Thank you for being so open – everything you said makes complete sense. Although I am not planning to retire my partner I have thought about this dynamic and how it would play out. Your story – from the heart – was what I thought. Your honesty is such a breath of fresh air.
Susan, it’s as if you wrote this for me. This is exactly what I required tonight. Thank you for being so vulnerable and tranlarent. You are amazing and this has given me clarity into the struggles I currently experience since I “retired” my husband. Thank you! This is incredibly helpful and encouraging.
This is so well written Susan. I am so glad you had given voice to this topic. Thank you for your transparency. Xo
Thanks for being so honest and open about this. I appreciate it very much.
Thanks
This was very timely as at ages 65 (me) and 64 (him) we are both planning on coming home to work together fulltime. He has always been the main income producer in our family, allowing me to be a stay at home mom and later a caregiver for my mom. Our businesses need hands on care to continue to grow and I want us to do them together. But I am sure we are looking at different ways to do that. This will be a great article to fuel the discussion! And may make me more open to a transition timing that is available for him.
Great article! Love your candidness.