What kind of family would you say you are?

What I mean is… within your family dynamic, do you each have set responsibilities that are exclusive to each other? Maybe you’ve discussed it and assigned or claimed certain tasks – or maybe you’ve not even had to discuss it; it’s just the way things are and always have been.

Alternatively, maybe you have no designated responsibilities; you just work together to share the load with no hard and fast rules as to who does what?

It’s very much each to their own. Some parents have their own defined roles whereas others are just domestic liberals.

After watching this video campaign about families switching up their roles in the home, it led me to look a little closer to home at how we function as a family and consider whether we each have set roles or just kind of go with the flow. I know that since becoming a family of four, there’s a sense of feeling that we’re ‘winging it’ a bit at the moment as we attempt to find our feet. Without having a proper discussion about it, we’ve evolved into a family unit that just kinda works and systematically gets things done but not by design.

For me this is such an interesting topic to discuss because it actually made me look at my little family unit in a different light.

If someone was to ask me; “What are your jobs in the house and what are Ayman’s?”, this is what I’d say…

• Ayman always looks for the best deals on products and services to help save money… but then I open and sort out all the correspondence.
• Ayman primarily does the food shopping and dare I say it cooks more than me.
• I do more of the cleaning and washing but Ayman does his odd bits too.
• I look after all the kids clothes and sorting and putting all that away.
• Ayman generally sorts the bins out every week although I probably sort out most of the recycling. Ayman always does the big trips to the tip though; usually with masses of cardboard to be recycled.
• We both put the kids to bed and do the whole bath time / bedtime regime.
• Ayman takes Hugo to nursery three times a week and picks him up too – I only occasionally do the nursery run.

So just how ‘switched up’ are Ayman and I in our family? Yes he may take the bins out more frequently than me and I, without doubt, tidy up more than he does haha but when we’re talking about the major responsibilities of what keeps a home together… we’re pretty equal. And probably not in the traditional sense either with Ayman doing a lot of the shopping and cooking whilst I’ll crunch the numbers for our finances and also liaise with gardeners and joiners to do any DIY jobs around the house. It makes me happy knowing that our jobs are shared more on an even keel and we both have to work together to make our home a happy place we want to be in :).

If you’re not quite sure what you’d class your family as, then take this survey below, literally takes less than a minute but the findings are very interesting!

SURVEY – Are you a switched up family?

Our results were as I expected. We’re more of a family that performs tasks and ‘chores’ without subscribing to traditional and stereotypical gender roles – definitely falling into the ‘switched up’ category. Apparently this is becoming more and more common but there’s really no right or wrong; each family is different and functions in a way that’s best for them – just how it should be. But just remember guys… Happy Wife = Happy Life, haha.

I’d love to know if you’re more of a traditional or switched up kind of family and what works for you?

Oh and before you go, stay tuned for a vlog coming very soon showcasing when Remy entered our lives including footage in the seconds and minutes after arriving with us 🙂 It’ll honestly give you all the feels – super sweet moments that I want to treasure forever!

Thanks for reading and have a lovely day!

Love Sally

x

^{This post was kindly sponsored by Indesit for their Big Family Switch up campaign. As ever, all thoughts and opinions are my own. I only blog about brands, products and services that I truly connect with, would genuinely use, and would legitimately recommend to others.}