My husband Brian is an attorney by day, night and weekend, and also the President of CertifiKID in the other couple of minutes he can spare. Okay, I can see his eyes rolling about this as he spends a huge amount of time on the business, though not sure how. I am so thankful for any of those minutes I can get! I am always asked, “Would you want him to quit his job and work all day with you?” The person always answers for me and says “I would kill my husband if we had to do that!” My answer is always, “YES! I would love that.”

It is true! If I could have anything in the world, I think it would be to have him home. Maybe it is because over the years we have had less time together as he is constantly traveling with his law firm across the world and his mind, at times, is very focused on his other work. They always say you want what you can’t have…

I am not going to sugar coat it….do we constantly bicker about the business? YES! We have totally different mindsets and strong views. He is always the glass half full and I am always the glass half empty. He is always the one who wants to smooth the situation out and I am the one who wants to fuel the fire. He is always the one who can be patient and hold tight and I am the one who can’t deal and wants to act decisively. Our kids see us get into heated debates, constantly pushing each other to see our side of the issue. However, they know and we know it is never “real” fighting. We always end up with some sort of compromise.

The thing is, I love that we have this big piece of our lives in common to work on together. And it comes with the added benefit of being something we own and control so it’s all up to us. Before CertifiKID, like a lot of couples, we each lived our separate work lives and rarely discussed any of it in depth with each other. No offense, but the legal stuff is not very exciting to discuss, and neither was my security work. With CertifiKID, everything is exciting and challenging from the amazing deals we may land, or sales that blow us away, to the employee issues and unexpected opportunities. I do struggle at times to turn it off when we are together. When we go out on a date night, I try to label it a date night or a work night. If it’s a “work” night, we go out and I have an agenda we need to discuss for the business that we go through because I may not have seen him for a week if he was away traveling for his law firm. We are most efficient on long drives where I have my laptop and he is driving and essentially cornered to discuss my agenda.

I am constantly impressed by what he does for the business every day. It is so interesting to see your spouse in a different light where you can truly appreciate their gifts. He is such a great speaker, he is amazing with people and mediating issues, and his writing is incredible. Why would I not want him to be full-time by my side every single day? I dream of morning coffee together and taking occasional runs, and constantly bouncing ideas by him with him sitting next to me. On a snow day or sick day, I sometimes get a taste of this, and I always want more…

Would he want to be around me all day? That might be another story . . . I am super messy, especially my work station. Plus, if he was more involved in my work, he might become even more nitpicky about how I was doing everything? Maybe we would get sick of each other? Maybe I would get nervous about giving up the security of his work situation which would place more pressure on me and the business? Maybe it is just best holding on to the feeling of wanting more…