IF WE SWAPPED ROLES, WE’D HAVE A FILTHY HOUSE AND BE BROKE!
Laura Sweet, 35, an insurance broker and owner of a children’s outdoor clothing company, amamaya, and her husband Simon, 40, a customer service adviser, have been married for 13 years. they have a daughter, Maya, three, and live in taunton, Somerset. LAURA: Food shop, bills and some of the childcare. AVERAGE A DAY: One hour SIMON: Cleaning, laundry, cooking and most of the childcare AVERAGE A DAY: 6 hours LAURA SAYS: Simon does everything in the house. He does all the cleaning, washing and cooks pretty much all the meals and he now does the lion’s share of childcare, too, because I work around 50 hours a week launching my brand.
I work mainly from home and Simon is contracted to do only 15 hours in the office, so we work around what our daughter needs.
We find this situation works to our strengths. When I was on maternity leave I did more housework and cooking, but I’m pretty rubbish at both.
I’ve always looked after the financial side of things and I’m not good at keeping ‘house’.
Now that I’m back at work, Simon’s in charge and is so pleased to have the control back. If we switched roles, we joke we’d live in a dirty home and be in debt! Our friends tease us about our situation, but it works so well for us.
I have the potential to earn more money and, although I might not get as much time with Maya, we’re both really involved in her life. SIMON SAYS: ‘I enjoy doing the housework and cooking and cleaning. When I was younger and I lived with flatmates, I knew that if I didn’t want to live in squalor I had to do something about it, so I’ve always been good at it.
We have two dogs, a cat and a toddler, so it’s never immaculate but I do my best. When Laura was at home full-time with Maya in the early days, I was working really hard, sometimes from 5.30am, and I was often tired and didn’t feel like doing much.
But now that I have more energy for Maya I take her to gymnastics classes and toddler groups and really enjoy it.
My father worked from home when I was growing up and my mum went out to work, so that has influenced me.
I don’t think it’s about men’s or women’s roles — it’s about working to your strengths, whatever your gender.
I’m sure if I increased my hours at work I’d still do the household chores — I’m just good at them.