I came across this article and thought I'd share it here. It might be beneficial for anyone who is in a relationship and has a family. The article is about a man who signed a family contract with his wife so he wouldn't neglect his family. Here's opening part of the article: “Congratulations, Neil!” I was sitting across from an HR exec at Walmart a few years ago. His hand was outstretched, and on the desk in front of us was a crisp sheet of paper spelling out all the terms of my new promotion. I shook his hand and left doing mental cartwheels down the hall. This was it! The dream job: More money, bigger team, fancier title, more interesting work. And more total work, too. A few more meetings. A few more hours. A few more business trips. A bigger job means bigger responsibilities, which would probably mean dedicating more time and effort overall–that’s just how promotions work, I inwardly shrugged. Promotion letter in hand, I popped my head into the office of one of my mentors at the company: “Guess what! I got the big promotion.” “Congratulations!” he said. “Are you going to accept it?” What did he mean, was I going to accept it? “Well, it feels like a slam dunk,” I replied, wondering what he was getting at. “Everything improves here–salary, benefits, title. Great for future employability, too. If I get turfed I have a nice top line on my resume,” I pointed out, adding, “I feel like I should sign this right now and head straight back to the SVP’s office.” “Go ahead and sign it,” he said with smile. “But it’s a big job! You’ll be leading a large team and on the road a lot. So before you hand it back in, make sure you take the contract home, share it with your wife, and write up another contract, too–a family contract. One between you and her. The company is changing all your terms, aren’t they? So make sure you revisit all your home terms, too.” He had a point. Many of us have contracts with our employers, but few of us have contracts with our partners. So, strange as it sounds, I went home that night and pitched the idea to my wife, Leslie. You can read the full article here.
We do something like this. We have Lists and things that make us run smoothly. We have alot of people to keep track of in my house... It's less about neglect and more about making sure it everything gets done.
