Last week my husband started working a formal, benefits eligible part time job, working twenty-four hours each week. He’s working on the weekend and a few hours weekday evenings, after I get home from work.
Let’s talk about his job, how we’re making it work with our schedules, and reflect on conversations I’ve had with other women on how disjointed it can feel when you’re not the breadwinner anymore.
Our History With Work – Part Time, Full Time, Stay At Home
Over the course of our now eighteen year marriage (just celebrated our eighteenth anniversary yesterday!), we’ve had a number of different working arrangements.
- When we were first married, we both worked full time jobs during the day.
- After our oldest son was born, my husband started working third shift full time, so we could avoid childcare
- Third shift plus caring for a baby all day proved difficult – so he found a part time job a few evenings and a weekend day each week
- When the part time job ended, he worked second shift for a few years. I worked from 6 AM until 3 PM so he could get off to his job on time
- His workplace closed during the Great Recession, leaving him totally unemployed. And then he got sick and unable to work
- Eventually, after he had recovered, he picked up part-time work loading packages early mornings. After a while, that work destroyed his abdomen and he was forced to go on leave
- After his leave ended, he stayed at home, undergoing a major reconstructive surgery when our little guy was six months old
So you can see, juggling various work schedules isn’t something that’s new to us.
On the other hand, I’ve had a full-time corporate job since I was eighteen years old. So for the past twenty one years, I’ve worked full time and grown my career in corporate America.
Our situation has always been one where it made sense for me to focus on a corporate career while he picked up work where he could. Part of this is a function of our ages when we had our oldest son – I was only twenty three, and our incomes at the time were such that we couldn’t really afford childcare.
His Job – What’s He Doing, and Why Now
Now my husband is working a formal part-time job: a few evenings a week, and the weekends. What’s he doing? He’s working in recreation at a local senior center. He gets to help entertain the senior citizens who can no longer live on their own, or who are recovering from a medical event, by showing them movies and playing games with them.
Why there? Well, there’s no way he can go back to the kind of back-breaking, manual labor he used to do. Even though he’s been medically cleared, the last time he did that he required major reconstructive surgery. Instead of taking that kind of risk, he found non-manual labor type work.
If you remember, he spent time living in a rehabilitation center after he was released from the hospital post-septic shock. He knows what it’s like to be in those places, and also has a fondness for the elderly. Helping to put a smile on the face of people who are recovering from various medical issues, or who simply are no longer able to live on their own, is rewarding.
Why now, especially shortly after paying off the mortgage? Shouldn’t we need extra money less than ever?
While true, there are other considerations for us:
- What would we do if I weren’t able to work, lost my job, or had to take time off unpaid? Yes, I have disability insurance, there’s no immediate threat to my job, and we could cover some unpaid time off with our emergency fund. But it’s always something I worry about in the back of my mind. I’ve read many stories from stay at home moms who are caught in bad situations, and wish they had kept up with some kind of work. Also, if something were to happen to me or my job, we would lose access to my benefits. Having a benefits-eligible job means he can take on that responsibility if needed.
- The little guy is going to kindergarten soon – full time kindergarten. That means that during the week, he’s going to be away all day long. By taking a part time job now, my husband can work with his employer to take on different hours next year when the house is empty. And potentially, once the little guy is older, he can move into full time work. After all, in two more years our oldest will be in college – and in six more years, our middle son will be too.
- We still have aggressive financial goals. After all, we have three kids that we want to help go to college, without sacrificing our own financial futures. There’s only two years left until our oldest son heads off to college – that’s not much time to prepare. Back when he was young, we couldn’t put aside much for college since we didn’t make much at the time.
- Retirement is still a consideration. My husbands retirement accounts exist, but dwarf mine. He’s currently 44 years old, and now he’ll have access to a retirement account again. Having additional savings, investments, and retirement accounts can only be helpful in our soon-coming old age.
When Roles Change – Communication and Compromise
In this kind of part-time role, he’s still the primary caregiver to our three kids. Unless I’m off on a business trip, in which case our oldest son will baby-sit the younger ones, he’s still the one caring for them all day. He’ll be doing the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in addition to running the kids around to their various activities and appointments. So in many ways, there’s no change and he’s still staying at home all day.
But when your roles change, compromise and communication are key to helping ensure neither person feels resentment towards the other for not pulling their weight.
As discussed above, we’ve had a number of different working arrangements over the past eighteen years. Each working arrangement came with different expectations around who would do what around the house.
I’ve talked to too many women over the years who were forced to work a significant “second shift” of housework and childcare, even when their husband stayed at home or worked in a part time capacity. I’ve written before about how we split household responsibilities differently over the years, and now we’ll need to figure out a new arrangement that works for us.
But I’ll still be keeping those tips from that article in mind – and since I work over twice as much as he does (my full time job requires much more than 40 hours a week), I won’t be taking on a huge burden myself.
And you know what? If you’re a working woman with a stay at home spouse, or one that works part time, you don’t need to bear the burden of all the household chores either. Even if you’re not the breadwinner, or you’re the one at home/working part time, compromise and discussion is key to ensuring a fair and equitable split between the members of the household.
When You’re Not The Breadwinner Anymore
Given that I make more in a day than he will in a week, though, it’s safe to say my role of breadwinner is safe for now. But what if it wasn’t?
I’ve talked to several women who were the breadwinner, then are not – maybe their spouse gets a new job or new career, or they decided to downshift or start a business. And I have to say, they all say it’s a bit jarring to have that part of their identity gone.
I found that interesting, because I’ve heard of the same thing happening when a man has been the breadwinner his entire relationship, and then suddenly is not. So it’s not gender specific to feel unnerved or uprooted when you’re no longer the one bringing in most of the bacon.
Why is this? I can’t say for sure, but my theory is that being the breadwinner can become part of our identity – part of who we are. And when we’re not anymore, it’s almost like part of our identity has been lost or shifted. Also, we may have made a certain split in household responsibilities based usually on the amount of/hours of work each family member takes on outside the house. When that shifts, we need to go back to our old friends compromise and communication to figure out a new arrangement that works for us.
In Conclusion
I’m glad my husband will be working this job with benefits now, even though I’m sure it will be a tricky adjustment at first. Not only for the reasons outlined earlier, but also it’s very rewarding and fulfilling to bring a smile to peoples faces. Apparently some of the residents are still talking about their Friday movie night and how they liked Princess Bride, and how much they enjoyed Wednesday game night.
Before he took on these evening hours, no one from recreation was there in the evenings, only during the day. Now the residents will get some fun and entertainment after dinner as well. Bringing a smile to their faces and some joy in their lives is rewarding work. And I know we’ll adapt to this new working arrangement over time.
Readers, have you ever known a family where the “breadwinner” role reversed – and did it require any adjustments? Let me know in the comments!
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It is *absolutely* unnerving to lose your breadwinner status. That is easily (and also probably stupidly) one of the reasons I was so excited to end my maternity leave.
I’m really happy that your husband has found something that fits his current needs and wants *and* seems to be something that will grow with him. EXCELLENT!
I was the breadwinner for several years and we both thought it was awesome! Then my husband got some promotions and became the breadwinner and I was thrilled for him and he had such great benefits too. The biggest change for me was the identity of being a working woman to a stay at home Mom to three kids under the age of 3. Wow! That was a shock! Completely different and at times lonely. Yes, we still split chores but we do try and adjust because we have chores we don’t like and that’s ok. If one of us likes a chore we try and keep the one we prefer. We are teaching the kids all of them so they have the knowledge, skills and they too are helping the family.
I love your advice about communication and openness. Marriage works best through changes if you can talk to each other about the changes.
My husband also started working as a substitute teacher last spring as our youngest was in Kindergarten. Previously he had taken on teaching a university class or a couple large volunteer roles (a facilitator and then leading the effort in finding/deciding on a new pastor) and we had some issues with roles. I was used to him always taking care of the kids when they were sick…but suddenly, if he had procrastinated or had an intense week, I had to take care of the kids…which bugged me when it was a volunteer thing and I had to take time off paid work! Anyway, we’re a team and work things out, it’s not always pretty! This year he will work up to 4 days/week substituting which will require me to help in the mornings getting the kids out the door (there is ALOT to remember! I’m not used to it)…also, we’re working on transferring laundry duties back to me (when he is the picky one with his ‘method’ haha)
I hear you-every shift we’ve been through has been an adjustment. And I’m also the one that doesn’t clean or do the laundry the “right way” 😂
I’ve been the breadwinner for the majority of our years living together, but I still carry the homemaker programming. I enjoy homemaking, just not after a long day of engineering. We’re still figuring out the balance in our house. Thank you for writing this – I needed a reminder to have “the talk” with my husband 🙂
I like cooking and baking, but that’s about it. Occasionally cleaning but that’s rare. 🤪 Best of luck with your conversation!
I earn significantly more than my husband and at one point, around 3 years of his unemployment/
underemployment I was the sole income for our family. The dynamics of that are not always smooth sailing but part of why it works, separate accounts for discretionary income, a joined account for our home life. I am a saver and put 35% into retirement and when we retire we will live off of the investments I’ve made. Raising our kid and taking on household chores has pretty much been a shared experience. I am so grateful to have gainful profession, no it is not easy carrying the load but as a team it has rewards beyond measure.
I might be in the minority here, but for me, I felt a huge amount of relief when I was no longer the breadwinner in our house.
A little background: for most of our relationship, I have been the one bringing home the bacon. Hubby has always worked, but for many years, it was very part-time (while in school) and then, after graduation, contract work that was really unpredictable. While he always brought in some money, my salary has always been what allowed us to live the way we do. This was fine for my first five years at my corporate gig but in year six, some changes at the company I worked for took place and the situation became super toxic — and because I was the one who made the money, I didn’t feel like I could just walk away. In the end, it took me nine super stressful months to find a new job (the market is tough here). It…sucked.
Fast-forward three years later, and even though I still out-earn hubby, we’re a lot closer than we were before. We are both in roles that have opportunities for advancement…and we are both in a position where a situation like what happened in my first job wouldn’t really have to happen again.
Thought-provoking post. Thanks for sharing!
A mid 5 figure breadwinner here. It’s stressful to know that the balance of needs, paying debts and extra comforts really relies on me. I surmise that, should things shift (hopefully sooner than later), I will feel better about the income but I worry that I will feel less important or worthy to the family finances. FWIW, I commend your hubby for finding something as rewarding and I’m sure he will enjoy some of the “adult time” as well. Plus, the kids get mommy time!
I think only change is constant. From my experience, marriage works best through these small changes.
We’ve had similar he leads/ I lead in terms of who is the breadwinner. Household and family duties have always been mostly split, and that’s been the key to harmony for us. When the home life got imbalanced is when the tension increased.
This is the first year we have no kids to worry about — our youngest just went off to college — so we’re in yet another stage where we have more flexibility and have a reached a base level of FI but there’s still more to earn and save if we want to reach our ultimate target level of FI. It’s a different kind of negotiation b/c we both have things we want to do, we both have ideas, and we both have to live with each other and each other’s choices. There’s still stress, even though it’s a different kind of stress.
After my husband had a ruptured brain aneurysm, I became the primary breadwinner. In the past, he always made more than I did, and it took him about 2 years to come to terms with the fact that he would not be able to work anymore.
I’ve thought about all those things you’ve mentioned – if something were to happen to me where I couldn’t work, or if I lost a my job, how would he (or we) get by? This is one reason I’m working so hard now to catch-up our savings and take care of all the things (wills, DPOA, trust, etc.).
Your husband’s new job sounds perfect for him! It’s an important job and I’m sure it will be very rewarding.
Thanks for the article- its very timely as I’m retiring soon and about to go from breadwinner to unemployed. My husband may keep working for a while so its going to be a huge change and I need to start thinking about it. I didn’t negotiate the division of household chores as well as you did, and that’s part of the reason I’m retiring. Perhaps its because our jobs didn’t change, only our earnings, there was no obvious impetus to do it. In any case, I am about to become a full- time mom and housewife. After 20+ years as a career woman, its going to be hard to think of myself this way…
My husband and I have switched breadwinner roles multiple times. At the beginning of our careers he was making more but then I quickly surpassed him. However my job is much more risky and I have been out of work twice in a short time which then he is the breadwinner. I have found, like you, that communication is key. I take on more when I am off work but he still does the majority of the physical labor as I have some medical issues.