As I continue to think about this topic of having a successful career and being married to a chef, I’ve come to realize that there are definitely some careers better suited for this than others (especially if you have kids.)
Here’s what one chef wife said on Facebook about one of my recent posts.
“I used to have a successful career. Then I had kids and they were more important. Now I seem to have a career again, but one that fits with the kids being home.”
I love that! So to conclude this series, I want to introduce you to Alyson, another chef wife whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know a little over the past few months. She is the author of the comment above and has found a career that fits perfectly with her chef/husband and family.
What is this magical career, you ask? It’s blogging. Alyson is the author of World Family Travel Blog.
The life Alyson and her chef/family live is definitely out of the ordinary. While she is married to a chef, he is currently unemployed. You see, Alyson and her chef/husband decided to save up and travel the world as a family. While they were saving for this adventure, her husband worked as a chef. (Make sure to read her post on being a Chef’s Widow when you have a second.) They traveled for about 12 months and then settled in London for a bit, where he returned to the kitchen and she blogged about their adventures and homeschooled their children. Now they are out and about again, I believe either on a cruise or getting ready to go on one very soon. (Well, not just a cruise, but a 33 days trans-continental cruise, visiting 8 countries, 13 ports, 2 hemispheres . . . I’m a little jealous about this!! Doesn’t that sound amazing????)
She blogs about all of this (including being married to a chef) and this brings in income for her family. That is her career.
Now before you go out and start a blog, thinking it will solve all your problems, let me let you in on a few things. Blogging takes a lot of time and effort before you see any sort of profit (especially if you are blogging on a topic that not many other people are . . . like I am. I spent more on my blog than I made the entire last year.) However, with that being said, there are a handful of very successful bloggers out there who actually help support their family (or support them completely) off the income on their blog. Alyson is one of them.
It’s an interesting idea for a career, and definitely one that works well with the hours of a chef. The hours are very flexible and you can manage them around the hours of your chef and the needs of your kids. I know this is just one idea, but since it has worked so well for one of us “chef wives,” I thought I’d pass on the idea.
With all of the technology we have at our fingertips, there are so many more job options with flexible hours now than there have been in the past. When our girls were young, I worked from home doing transcription for an insurance adjuster. I’ve worked as a graphic designer for our church. I learned to develop websites and now manage 4 for a small local restaurant group and a few other local companies. Oh, and I blog. Although since I only made about $20 from this blog all last year, I don’t know that I can really count that as a job . . . But it’s been a blast! All of these have been done from home when my chef/husband has been working, and the kids have been sleeping, at school, or playing quietly (this doesn’t happen often).
So let’s think outside the box! What are some professions that work well with the hours of a chef? Let me know your ideas in the comments below.
From one chef’s wife to another,
Make sure to check out this group Pinterest board, “Chef” which Alison, her chef/husband and I all pin to. 🙂
