Life admin. What does the term mean to you?
Is it about making sure the kids get to school on time, is it balancing your finances, managing your bills, organising your paperwork, making appointments, buying birthday gifts, keeping up with the demands of running a stable home? In reality, of course, it’s all of the above and more – but what is the part you play?
In most homes, life admin is a shared responsibility. But (and we’re going to get controversial here), is the burden of responsibility equal, or could it be that we are still unconsciously gender biased in our home life?
We all know that life has changed a lot since those restricted and compartmentalised days of the 1950s when men were traditionally in charge of the finance and assets, and women ran everything to do with the home. And thank goodness for that!
For years now, the world has been waking up to the fact that we don’t all fit into convenient boxes and the result is that those traditional responsibilities are becoming increasingly blurred. More women are assuming the role of household breadwinner, while family-friendly legislation means that men now have the chance to spend time taking care of their children and the home.
Yet one particular ‘hangover’ from the old days is that women are still often generalised as being more supportive and organised. These are qualities that are believed to more naturally lend themselves to admin responsibilities at work… and at home.
Families these days are far from ‘traditional’, with both partners juggling busy work, social and home lives. In such a hectic world, the pressure to remember everything can sometimes feel just as heavy as the task list itself. Often, it’s the juggling and remembering the multitude of ‘mini’ tasks required for managing the ‘day to day’ household that can add up to us feeling overwhelmed. So, when life outside of the home is more equal but we find ourselves subconsciously falling into traditional roles when it comes to life admin, then perhaps the burden of responsibility is not as shared as we think?
And perhaps that means it it time to rethink it.
Life admin in all its guises, is relevant to everybody in the home, and now more than ever before, it’s important that the load – and the knowledge – can be properly shared. Try not to fall into a trap where one person shoulders most of the responsibility for joint or family life admin. We’re all good at some things and less good at others, so the key is to identify where your life admin ‘stress’ areas are, and then tackle them head-on as a team.
Lifefyle has a subscription option that is specifically designed to help you ‘share the load’. It will help you to navigate your life admin with time-saving ease together, allowing you to upload documents from your phone, set reminders for each other, allocate tasks accordingly and share notes on life and life admin – so no-one will have to worry about being the person who has to remember absolutely everything! Don’t worry - it doesn’t all have to be about managing the mundane – why not use it to share your bucket lists, collaborate on your holiday plans or use it to build your future too?
Our ‘hello autumn’ special offer makes signing up even easier. Simply enter the code ‘AFS90LKN’ at the checkout before 19th October, and you’ll get your first three months on us*.
Click here to get started today.
www.lifefyle.com
*3 month free trial offer expires 19/10/2018. Only valid when discount code is applied at payment checkout with full payment on or before this date. Only available to new members. 1 redemption per person. After your free trial you will be automatically billed, at the standard subscription rate, until cancelled. Can not be exchanged for cash or combined with other offers. Statutory rights not affected.