Don’t bring your work home…

I’m going to make a confession – I don’t have a wedding album. I’ve been married for almost six years and still I have no leather-bound book full of images from my “most special day”. It wasn’t until last year I even had a photograph of my wedding day on display.

Okay, so it’s not that big a deal. I’m sure many married couples don’t have an album and if they do, they probably haven’t looked at it for years. It’s just that I am married to a wedding photographer! That’s what he does for a living. We even get albums at wholesale prices. He puts together beautiful albums for other blissful couples, but still we are without one. It’s become a bit of a running joke at our house. That, and the fact we hardly have any holiday snaps – my husband doesn’t even bring his camera. “I’m on holidays,” he says. “The last thing I want to do is take photos.”

I suppose it’s not too dissimilar to a person living in a renovation nightmare only to confess they are a builder or a chef who doesn’t cook at home. However, it’s not as bad as some other professions. I would find it hard to go to a hairdresser with bad regrowth or a dentist with dirty teeth.

It did get me thinking about the whole issue and the other day I discussed it with a couple of friends. I was saying how embarrassed I was for not taking enough notice of our finances, particularly since I’m a business reporter by trade. I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve written urging women to take an active involvement in their household’s finances. I remember many I time I’ve sat at my desk as a young, single, childless and mortgage-free person and chastised other women for not taking control of their financial security. And now a decade later married with three children, a mortgage and a vested interest in a small business, I realise I am completely disengaged from our daily finances. And wonder how I got myself in that position.

One of the women laughed when I told her my “shame” and also confessed a secret. “I’m a solicitor and we don’t have up-to-date wills,” she said shaking her head. “And my husband’s an accountant and I pay all the bills.” It seems many of us are doing a good job of keeping our work separate from our home life.