The Accidental Trad Wife

Routine (again)

Awake, kiss at the door, Monster, Duolingo. This sounds much like yesterday. 

Clean kitchen, clean bathroom, put a load of washing on. This also sounds much like yesterday. 

I don’t mind the routine at all, I may go as far as to say I like it. I definitely prefer it to my old routine: wake up, shower, open laptop in bed while doing skincare, answer last night’s emails, try to work out a space to have a lunch break, move to lounge, answer an ad-hoc phonecall with hair still wet, send a happy gif on Teams, look at the 25 browser tabs I have open and try to remember what’s most important to start with, get another ad-hoc phone call, stare blankly at a PowerPoint I’ve made for some initiative that I’ll have to talk through at a meeting with no one really listening, reply to Teams messages, stare blankly at an Excel document…then 9am hits and the first of at least seven meetings begin. Fuck. 

Writing that down makes it seem awful. Maybe it was, but it didn’t feel it, I loved my job. But who really wants to do that? Staying in Trad Wifery is very appealing. I’m bringing love and warmth to the home. That’s appealing. I still get it. I really didn’t think my views would change so much. 

After the cleaning and reflection on life, I got ready to go out and meet some old colleagues.

Have I killed their dream? 

One of my old colleagues from three companies ago messaged me a while back and we are meeting for a drink and chat this afternoon. She said she and another old colleague wanted to pick my brain about digital learning futures. I hoped I wasn’t too out of practice.

We met, hugged and caught up about how all of our lives had both changed and stayed exactly the same over the last six years.

After the standard catch up, I expected them to explain what new idea or change they needed help with. But they said, “We’re starting a business in e-learning”. I asked about their USP, planned costs, and target market. They were unsure. They have a company name and logo though. 

The conversation was nice, I gave them advice about different technology, competitors to research and courses to improve their skills. For context, not arrogance, I’ve been in digital learning for over a decade, they’ve been dabbling on and off since I left that employer six years ago. Towards the end, they asked me if their idea was worth pursuing. I answered as nicely as I could “There’s a reason I’m not doing it.” It’s AI, AI is often the reason now. 

I felt I’d put a dampener on their dream.

I never said “Don’t do it!”, or “That’s an awful idea.” Just, it has an end date, and it’s on the horizon. 

We caught up a bit more socially, then I wandered back home, stopping in at Tesco to pick up some bits for dinner. 

I could tell they wanted to be out of the stress of work. But not everyone has the privilege of choosing a Trad life. 

Sausage and mash is always good

I got home and my husband was already back, an hour or so earlier than usual. We chatted for a bit while he was designing a new road network on the game he’s currently playing. He’d had a hard day, his job today isn’t as secure as it was yesterday. The new budget is looming. 

I made us Yorkshire puddings, sausage, mash and broccoli. Sometimes comfort food is the answer. 

The Trad Wife round up:

Glasses of wine: 3
Dreams crushed: potentially 1
Yorkshire puddings eaten: 3
Trad-Wifedom: appealing