A division of labour {who does what in your household?}

Despite the fact that I can happily whinge about my darling husband from time to time {are there women out there who don’t?!}, I definitely found myself a wonderful man when I met him in a Sainsbury’s carpark in London one frosty January night {true story}.

Paul is a very hands on father.

He works long hours to keep a lovely roof over our heads, good food on the table and nice things in the children’s lives. And he thinks nothing of coming straight in the door at 7pm, rolling up his sleeves and cracking on with whatever child-related duty demands his attention at the time.

He gets the best reaction on walking through the door, reads the longest bedtime stories and gives the best goodnight hugs. But he’ll also clear up vomit, wipe bums, and deal with tantrums and tears {mine included}.

I wouldn’t say he’s always been this way. It took him a little while to wave farewell to his former child-free self but, due to a fantastic opportunity offered by his office in Sydney he finally understood. You see, when Oliver was nine months old, Paul spent three months at home looking after him full time. By himself. And it was then he realised. He got it. Being a full time parent can be incredible, amazing and so rewarding, but also draining, exhausting and somewhat boring all in equal measures, day in day out.

And that’s why now, two children down the track and with me as a stay at home Mum, he never underestimates my role in this house or makes me feel undervalued in any way.

In fact, I’d go so far as to say that despite the commute, the longer hours and less time at home, he’s now better than ever with the children and also around the house.

Mostly we divide and conquer to tackle the daily mundane that keeps the child-rearing wheels turning. There are some things he always does and some that he never ever does. Same for me.

He’ll never be a cook, but does all the washing up and attempts to stack the dishwasher {why oh why are men so bad at this?}. I do bathrooms, he does bins. I never do bins. I do washing, stain removal, hanging out laundry, folding laundry, putting away laundry. I never iron. Not even his shirts. He does late-night dog walking and clears up poo. I dust and mop. He cleans dirt from wellies and deals with muddy prams. I scrub crayon marks from walls and coffee stains from clothes. We both vacuum. He does bills, I remind him to do them. I shop for food, he does late night runs to buy me emergency chocolate. And so it goes on.

We’re a team. And I like it that way.

Do you have a hands on or hands off husband? Is there anything you refuse to do?

*This post is sponsored by Vanish {and thanks to them, I'm currently giving this product a whirl - it's winning with me so far}. All words and opinions are my own.