DIVISION OF LABOR

One of the things that I have learned since I have become Somebody’s Wife (!?!?) is that there has to be a sort of division of labor on some of the household "jobs". For example, both Hubz and I felt that we were fairly adept at managing our finances when we came together. We were both organized and dedicated and interested in money management. When we started to merge our money, we realized that one of us had to step back and let the other be the “Team Captain” of the money department, while the other gave up the “execution” aspect and was instead only an equal voice in decision making. After much negotiation, it was decided that he would lead the charge – making him the Money Expert of our little family. (And I must give him quite a lot of credit for the fact that he consults me regularly before he executes anything, and we truly do talk through each money decision with a very even distribution of outcomes between his and my ideas).


The division of “expertise” in our family is somewhat traditional. I head up all matters of food, home upkeep and décor, socializing and family events/gifts. Hubz has the con on money, technology and handy work. But now we live in Germany – so our area of influence has opened a bit. I am now the Chief Officer in Charge of Menu Reading and Guessing What that German Thing Says. Hubz is the In House Counsel for German Public Transportation. He is also the President of Counting in German. (seriously, can't count past 12 over here, how lame am I???)

Second only to Finance Manager, Hubz’s favorite role around here is the Public Transportation Guru gig. He is passionate about it. He has even taken to giving me a rough time about taking the car to base when I run my errands (seriously? Slogging onto the bus and then a train with arm loads of groceries or dry cleaning or boxes we've received in the mail? No thanks!). I, on the other hand, who have travelled a fair amount, and navigated on my own with only a few stumbles in a lot of countries, have completely let that part of my brain atrophy. When I need to take a train someplace, I usually work it into conversation with Hubz and hope that he takes the bait. He is pretty reliable about advising me, in detail, about which ticket to buy, which connection to make, and on which side of the platform to wait. I’m sure I COULD figure it out by myself….just like he COULD make his own dinner – but hey, what kind of a fool would I be to forego the use of a resident expert!?