Courtesy of Melissa Noble
I first met my husband Sam when he was 24 and I was 21. Back then, he worked six days a week. At the time, he had his own remedial massage business on the Gold Coast, in Australia, and he believed that as a young business owner, he had to put in long hours to succeed.
Sam was raised in a hardworking, middle-income Australian family. His dad worked for the government, and his mom worked in retail. They taught Sam about the importance of having a strong work ethic, budgeting, and investing wisely.
I was also raised in a family of hard workers. For as long as I can remember, my dad worked 12-hour days, five days a week, as an agricultural spare parts salesman, while my mom worked part-time in advertising to help support our family of six.
As soon as I could, I started working and got a job at the age of 14 at our local ice cream shop to earn my own money. I continued working throughout school and while I was at university. Before I'd even graduated, I'd already lined up an internship at the local newspaper.
In our 20s, Sam and I traveled for several years and did odd jobs while overseas. When we returned to Australia in 2013, we were pretty broke, so we started working full-time again and trying to fill up the coffers, so to speak.
I got a job as a print journalist at a newspaper in Melbourne then started my own copywriting business, while Sam opened a remedial massage and myotherapy clinic in Melbourne (he'd closed the Gold Coast business in 2011 when we went travelling).
It was during the pandemic that our priorities really shifted. When the 2020 lockdowns began in Melbourne, Sam had to close his clinic, while I continued working from home as a copywriter. He homeschooled our kids. I took over as the main breadwinner for the family.
I was working extremely long hours, and while it was financially lucrative, deep down, I knew our family life was suffering. By that stage, we had two children, and I felt like I was missing out on quality time with them.
By late 2021, the pandemic lockdowns had stopped, and life was pretty much back to normal. Sam and I were both working full-time again. Then, I became pregnant with our third child. She was born in August 2022.
Courtesy of Melissa Noble
Around Christmastime that year, we chatted about what was important to us. We decided we'd rather have less money if it meant having more time with our three children, who were then 7, 4, and four months old.
So, in 2023, we made some big changes. When I went back to work after maternity leave, I cut my hours back to four days a week, and my husband also cut his work hours back to four days a week. Having our own businesses meant we could dictate our own rosters, so we were extremely lucky in that regard.
We're still both only working four days each week, and our system is working really well for us. My husband and I tend to tag-team with the kids. One or the other of us will take care of our youngest (who only goes to day care three days a week) in the mornings and then work in the afternoon. We also take turns doing school pick-ups, so our kids know that either mommy or daddy will always be at the school gate waiting for them at the end of the day.
Rather than paying for childcare, which is expensive, we get to be the ones to take them to extracurricular activities and birthday parties, do homework with them, and watch their swimming lessons or dance recitals. Those moments are invaluable to us.
Working four days a week means my husband and I have had to adjust our spending habits quite a lot. We've felt the cost-of-living pressures in the past couple of years and have had to learn to budget better. But we believe it's worth it.
We know we'll probably never have the flashiest house or the best cars. But what we will have are plenty of memories with our children while they're still young and want to spend time with us. For us, those memories are worth their weight in gold.
