Prior to this trip, Doug & I would jokingly talk about our marriage being a corporation of sorts and clear division of labor . .
Joint CEOs (heck yeah!)
CFO (all things financial): Doug
CTO (all things technical): Doug
COO (make all things operational & day-to-day happen for the family/girls especially): Sarah
CPO (all things customer service related): Doug
In our RTW ('Round the World) travels, our roles have stayed the same in many ways and expanded in others, given the shift in our daily rhythms. Here's a run-down of some of our most common examples of division of labor:
Passports and Boarding Passes -> Sarah: I can't physically let someone else be in control of these critical documents! Call it control freak, but I don't even "let" fully capable Doug hold his own passport, ha! I have a small clear zip vinyl pocket folder that I put all our passports and boarding passes into, and they stay within my possession at all times. Just makes it easier to know they’re all in one, consistent place together. Also in that zip pocket folder are extra passport photos, a pen and some spare USD bills (just in case).
Charging Station -> Doug: Each time we arrive in a new “home” (which is sometimes as frequent as everyday; other times once a week), Doug finds a well-located outlet and sets up our master charging station. In a rotation of devices, that single adapter accommodates two laptops, three mobile phones, one iPad, two Kindle, two FitBit chargers and one earbud charger.
Packing and Unpacking -> Sarah: Virtually everything related to packing and unpacking for our family falls under me. We’ve got quite an efficient system going, given we’ve had so many chances to hone it on-the-go :) Packing Specifics: Doug lays out all four luggage bags open for me, and then I get to work packing & compressing all our (me and the girls) clothing packing cubes. Exception: Doug is in charge of his clothing packing cubes; I don’t touch his for packing or unpacking. Then it’s an art fitting all those packing cubes pack into the four bags, along with all the other random packing items (i.e. swimming packing cube, shoes, dirty laundry, pajamas packing cube, school workbooks, etc). FYI: We each have 3-4 packing cubes, organized in basically the same way: one for undies/socks/bras; one for shorts/t-shirts; one for long-sleeve shirts/pants. We have separate, thematic packing cubes that hold all four of our related items, i.e. pajamas; swimming stuff; raincoats. That way we only have to pull out the raincoat packing cube the few times we need it; otherwise that cube stays in the luggage. The bags are never packed the same way twice; I wish I could orchestrate a master packing per bag that I replicate each time, but reality is it’s just not feasible. Inevitably there’s always a variable that throws a wrench in that plan. Example: If we’re going to be in a place for only one night, we plan ahead & pack all our stuff into one packing cube, so that we avoid having to riffle through all four bags for our stuff. This pre-planning allows us to open only one bag and simplifies things significantly. Unpacking Specifics: I take out all our clothing packing cubes and divide them up by person so that each person can have their own “station” of clothing packing cubes. Toiletries & Electronics: Virtually all of our toiletries, (just-in-case) medicines and electronics travel in Doug’s carry-on backpack. As a result, Doug typically takes the lead on pulling out all the chargers and our master toiletries bag.
Luggage -> Doug: As we travel through airports or other transport hubs, we each typically pull one luggage bag each, and always each carry our own backpack. Sometimes Doug & I will pull two luggage bags (and leave the girls with only their backpacks to carry) if we want to move at a quicker pace. Lately I’ve been having some back pain, so to hedge off any further unnecessary discomfort or injury, Doug has been taking the lead on carrying all the luggage bags. It means that I stand ridiculously by and watch as poor Doug has to schlep our luggage up & down stairs, or up & into car trunks, etc. I feel bad, but we both agree that it’s not worth risking an injury; that would set us waaay back. Doug can thank me later for building up his arm muscles :)
Immigration Cards -> Sarah: Any and all immigration cards are filled out by me. Makes sense because I physically hold all the passports and boarding passes for the required form inputs. But also . . . I just love doing that kind of stuff!
Laundry, Folding & Sorting -> Sarah: I love doing laundry; always have & probably always will. I find it calming to sort & fold clothes; I especially loved doing the girls laundry when they were itty bitty and had all their teeny clothes, socks and onesies :) On the road laundry takes on different forms. Sometimes it’s paying (by the kilo) to have it done offsite at a local laundry spot. In that case, all I’m doing is sorting the folded laundry once we’ve gotten it back and putting it into everyone’s respective clothing packing cubes. Other times we have access to a washer/dryer and I just throw in loads as often as possible. Caveat: If we ever need to air dry items, Doug is always the one to jerry-rig our travel clothesline up somewhere in our accommodation. He’s had to get creative quite a few times!
Hand Wash Laundry -> Doug: I must give credit where credit is due. Doug takes the lead on hand washing items when we need to. Even the “dirty work” (in my opinion) of things like gritty sneakers, dirty workout clothes that we need the next day, etc. I don’t like to do that kind of “deep clean” stuff. Thank goodness he does!
Cash ATM Withdrawals -> Doug: In keeping with his "CFO" responsibilities, Doug tends to be the one that hits up ATMs in each new country to fill our wallets with local currency. This is especially true at airports. Helps makes things run efficiently to have only one of us fussing around for the ATM card.
Car Rental Bookings -> Doug: Doug researches & books all our car rentals. It just works out that he’s the one that always takes the lead on that. He keeps us on the go!
Driving -> Doug: Along those lines, Doug does all the driving. For the record, it has nothing to do with Doug being a better driver than me (although he is a solid, safe driver all-around)! Two reasons: 1) I’m not on the car rental agreements. We don’t pay to have me added as a second driver, so I can’t technically get behind the wheel. 2) I can’t drive stick and virtually all the rental cars in the countries we’ve visited are manual/stick.
Backseat Driver -> Sarah: As a result, I’ve mastered the art of backseat driving. I’m a pro. Just ask Doug :)
Uber/Grab Bookings -> Doug: We end up booking all of our Uber (Grab in Southeast Asia) rides through Doug’s phone app. I can’t for the life of me get Grab to work, and it simplifies things to have all our bookings in the same place.
Directions -> Sarah: I'm lead on all things related to directions. In the car that's a no-brainer because Doug is focused on driving. But even when we're on foot, I still take the lead on navigating us from Point A to Point B. Doug is surprisingly "directionally challenged", shall we say, so we're all better off if I steer us in the right direction.
Lodging Research -> D&S, but more Doug: We both contribute on researching lodging options. I’d say on the whole Doug has done more of the heavy lifting on this front. Our go-to websites for lodging are: AirBnB, AMEX Travel, Booking.com, Agoda.com (Asia), Orbitz & Hotwire (very limited) and Travelfish (Southeast Asia).
Lodging Bookings -> Doug: Doug tends to pull the trigger and actually make our online bookings.
Transport Research & Bookings -> Sarah: I take the lead on researching and booking most of our travel transport . . . ferries, trains, buses, flights, etc.
Online Flight Check-In -> Sarah: This falls into the passport-related bucket, so I handle all online flight check-ins for the four of us.
What-to-do-on-the-ground Research -> D&S, but more Doug: Doug & I share the load when it comes to researching ideas of what to do on-the-ground in places, in terms of sights to see, experiences to have, restaurants, beaches to hit up, etc. Doug was especially awesome on the research front through Southeast Asia, scouring www.travelfish.org website. We involve the girls as much as we can and let them steer our decisions. Heck, Paige even does some of the research online, and found us our amazing family cooking class in Langkawi, Malaysia! Read Paige's blog post about the cooking class!
Master RTW Itinerary -> S&D: We have a mega Excel Google Doc that we created back in March 2019 when we started to map out our travel itinerary. It is the lifeline of our trip, capturing day-by-day our country, location, sleep location, flight/other transport details, etc. We collaboratively manage and update it real time.
Hotel & Flights into Master RTW Calendar -> S&D: We also have a shared RTW Google calendar that we use to log all our flights and hotel bookings. We both manage and update that real time, as well.
School Logistics -> Sarah: I take the lead on gathering up and distributing all supplies for school sessions (laptops, notebooks, pencil cases, etc.), as well as logging the girls into their respective online school curriculum profiles. Not time or labor intensive; just a streamlining tactic to have only one of us unpack & pack back up all school-related materials.
School Teaching -> S&D: We 100% share the load on this one. We decided early on to divide & conquer. I do Math with Paige & Language Arts with Sadie. Conversely, Doug does Math with Sadie & Language Arts with Paige. This set-up enables us to specialize in one subject with each girl (consistency = knowledge + progress). It also helps ensure that none of us fatigue of each other; we can get the best out of each girl with a teacher/student change-up/refresh. This model continues to work really well for all four of us.
Streamlining responsibilities such as above helps remove any unnecessary strain as we move along, and helps make for some comforting, solid routines. It also helps ensure that we can stay focused on getting out of this trip what we really want to (connection, experiences, etc). We continue to run our family corporation well on the international circuit! :)
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