As you already know, Matt and I have pretty non-traditional jobs. We’re lucky to own both of our businesses and be able to make decisions about our schedules how we want. The only drawback is that no one is there to do our jobs if we’re not, so the show must go on!
While Matt doesn’t really get a formal paternity leave from his own business, I imagine he’ll be home a lot the first week or so since we’ve been able to take vacations. We really don’t know how things will go in the weeks beyond. I imagine we’ll figure it out as we go and we discover when and how we might want to tag-team responsibilities. Matt generally works from about 7am to 6pm, 6 days a week, although he has been coming home a bit earlier recently and has been able to take some vacations as well. He really enjoys his work and it’s casual being the boss, so he doesn’t feel like it’s been too much or too draining working that many hours. He really has the ability to adjust his schedule however he wants, but certain days of the week are more demanding than others (like Mondays are errand days, Saturdays are city market days, Fridays are slammed busy, etc.). And he has a huge pile of tasks to accomplish every week like scheduling, payroll, inventory, ingredient ordering and more, but they can be done pretty much at any time during the week. The bakery really runs best when he’s there (and owner presence is very important to us) so working from home most of the time isn’t something he’d choose even though he could easily do a lot of the work there.
I am fortunate to have an extremely flexible schedule as well. I intend to keep both blogs going without too much interruption as we get settled. The question mark will be – what will they be like? KERF might drop to two posts a day (or even one until I get in my groove) and my meal content and frequency will probably change a lot. But with one camera or another, I hope to keep capturing my life through food. KERF’s goal has always been to share a real food diet within the context of life. Life’s pace has slowed down a lot (much to my happiness) since I finished my internship and the bakery opened, but it’s about to get very busy again and I will face new food and blogging challenges. After all, I have to keep eating!
BERF will probably become mostly a photo blog of our life with the baby – with content posts scattered here and there as time permits. I started it for fun, not to stress myself out, so if I’m feeling overwhelmed, I’ll probably slow blogging pace on BERF and keep KERF the priority. But photos are really easy – text is not! At the least, I’d love to capture our first year as a family in photos. But my ultimate goal is to include lots of content, reviews and discussion as well.
Aside from my blogs, I plan to devote most of my time to the baby once he arrives, giving up many of the freelance writing projects and bakery jobs that I have done between blog posts over the past few years. And sadly most of my traveling and blog conferences – at least for the first year.
I imagine that Matt and I might work out a schedule of sorts after nursing becomes less frequent where he is 100% dad a morning, afternoon, day or multiples each week and I take some time to myself to get out of the house and write in a coffee shop or work at the bakery. Or maybe just go grocery shopping or for a run! That will give us a chance to change roles and will give him quality dad time and a break from his job. And hopefully Grandma KK will be fun for the baby to play with for an afternoon or so too : )
I’d love to hear your thoughts: how do you divide tasks with your spouse or partner? Or if you are a single parent, what tricks have you found help you take care of the baby, house and yourself?
Any tips or strategies to share with a new mom-to-be?
