How to Encourage Your Wife to Return to Work

culled from:wikihow.com

Steps

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Review your finances together. One of the easiest ways to motivate anyone to return to work is to review how much money you have (or don’t have).

• Find a quiet time to sit down together. Put the kids to bed and pull out the bill box. The only way you can properly examine the finances is with some peace and quite. A glass of wine may help too.
• Make a list of debts and compare it to your income. Include school tuition, credit cards, gym memberships and the weekly grocery bill--anything that you spend money on every month. Then compare that total to what you take home to see if your paycheck covers expenses with ease or if you are having trouble meeting all your monthly payments.
• Discuss savings and retirement. How much are you able to put away for retirement or a rainy day fund? You’ll need money not only for your golden years but to cover any emergency or surprise expenses such as a new roof or auto repairs.

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   Ask your wife about her goals and dreams. After seeing it in black and white your wife may feel as if she needs to go back to work in order to help pay the bills and hopefully build up the retirement fund. However, the last thing you want is for her to go back to a job or industry she hates.
   • Ask her to describe the perfect job. Even if it’s not a reality, finding out what she considers to be the perfect job could help to identify a career or position that could come close to making her happy.
   • Have her evaluate the job she used to do. Did she like it and generally feel satisfied and happy or did the work make her feel miserable? Perhaps it was the coworkers rather than the work that made her unhappy. Ask her to perform a full evaluation of her previous job to determine if she should go in a different direction or company.
   • Identify careers or jobs that could accommodate your wife’s goals. You don’t need to find the actual open position, but research careers that would meet her needs.
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   Demonstrate that you will be supportive in her back to work efforts. You wife may not want to go back to work if she thinks that she’ll be continue to be the primary childcare giver and errand runner. All the tasks she completes alone as someone who stays at home should now be equally divided.
   • Devise a childcare schedule that is equal and fair. If she did 99.9% of the childcare, you’ll need to step up your game. Offer to take night feedings if you have an infant or take the kids to soccer practice during the week. Not only offer, begin doing these tasks so she will see how it can possibly work.
   • Help with laundry and housecleaning. No longer will you throw your basketball shorts on the floor only to find them magically picked up, laundered and gently placed back in your drawer. You are now going to be the master of the home and will be in charge of your own laundry, mess and half of any mess/laundry created by the children or animals.
   • Ask how you can make her life easier if she goes back to work. Sometimes it may be not be evident what can be helpful so instead of guessing just ask her. She may need you to see if you can rework your own work schedule in order to make her working a success or she may need you to help with the job search or rebuilding a resume.
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   Decide how your wife could go back to work. Collaboratively think about the number of different scenarios that could work for you financially and emotionally.
   • Part time. For some mothers or people who have been at home for a period of time, working part time at first (or permanently) offers numerous benefits including flexible hours (so you won’t need additional childcare), less commitment to the company (long hours may not be necessary) and less of a disruption to the family.
   • Starting a business. If you are in the position to start a new business and it’s something your wife wants to try, consider renting that retail space so she can open a boutique or open a restaurant if she’s an amazing chef.
   • Home-based business. Not for the faint of heart and definitely for an organized, motivated individual, a home based business will allow your wife to make money while continuing to be home for the children.
   • Full time. In some cases, going back to work full time is the only way you can swing it, however seek out companies that provide in-house daycare, flexible hours and a family friendly setting (where you won’t get in trouble if you have to be home with a sick child from time to time).
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   Consider the impact of having your wife go back to work. If you have small children that require childcare, you’ll need to weigh the cost/benefits of expenses you may have not had before.
   • How much childcare will you require? Do your children attend elementary or middle school so they may only need supervision or rides after school or are they babies or preschoolers who will need care during work hours?
   • Will you need other services if your wife returns to work? In some cases you may need a housekeeper if your wife goes back to work full time. If she did all the laundry and cleaning you may need to hire someone to step in to perform those tasks while she is at work.
   • Factor in any other expenses you could possibly incur. Do you need to purchase another vehicle so that your wife can go back to work or consider the increase in gas expense?