venern: Corporate wifery...

I am a corporate wife. You may not have known this about me. My husband actually works for the same whopper multi-national, household-name company as I do, but he has a proper, important, bring-home-the-bacon, full time job (whereas my job is part time and some would say less proper). Over the years I have decided that there is an art of corporate wifery. It requires specific skills...

1. Having an endless understanding of the working hard/working late phenomenon...in effect it is the same as just working. There is only one kind of working for my husband and sadly that's hard and generally late...

2. There is always the promise and the possibility of 'the next role' when climbing the corporate ladder - that could be a good role or it could be a not-so-good role. A role in another country (eek), a role where he could be home even less (is that possible?).

3. Getting a new boss is a big deal...do we like the new boss? This can take months to establish and requires very careful and subtle wifely questioning to get to the bottom of.

4. The laptop/blackberry combo accompanies us everywhere, everyday, anytime, day and night.

5. If there is ever an occasion to meet said boss/colleagues - absolute charm, style and elegance is required (no pressure then!) in an unassuming but not forgettable, non-predatory manner...

There are definite perks - for example, all expense paid trips to Hawaii (twice, loved it, paradise on earth), and living the life we lead. Farmhouses don't come for free.

I'm the modern 1950s housewife...except ummmm, I work and our house does not look like this ;-)

Sometimes I wonder - what would it have been like if I had married a milkman instead? (Nothing atall against milkmen by the way...). But then I think...nah, he rocks my world, so if he has to do the corporate thing, so be it. I will be there behind him every step of the way.

Whilst on men in suits...here is some Mad Men styling...