Client success stories: Richard and Ruth

Richard* felt uneasy about the amount he was travelling with work and how much being away left on the shoulders of his wife Ruth*, who also worked full time and was at an important moment in her own career.

When he did arrive home after a work trip, he’d need time to recover from jetlag and catch up with the family again. It was as though he was always behind on things at home. Ruth was understanding, to a degree, but if she’d had a particularly hard week – one of the kids was sick, a dishwasher breakdown or a really difficult work week – she’d start to question whether they were trying to do too much and occasionally there was tension. 

Richard and Ruth both joined the Welcome call after signing with CiD which meant they met a team member in person and jointly agreed a plan of action from the outset.

There were 2 key areas CiD would help with: day to day management of the house to support Ruth, Richard’s wife, and organisation of family leisure time to coincide with Richard being at home.

Ruth was able to ping CiD via WhatsApp whenever she needed help with something at home: a problem with the WiFi; a temporary cleaner when theirs was away; the windows cleaning; the hedges trimming and lawn mowing; some bills paying; a backed up drain clearing; a broken blind.

The priorities were agreed and tried and trusted tradespeople from CiD’s incredible black book of contacts were organised around days Ruth was working from home. 

While for Richard, our focus was on creating some wonderful experiences for them all to share as a family, aligned with his work calendar: a weekend at Disneyland Paris; tickets to a West End matinee; a woodland biking outing; a family friendly music festival; and plans for the holiday of a lifetime to go diving in the Maldives – something they’d been wanting to do as soon as the children were old enough. Through CiD’s co-ordination and extraordinary network of travel providers, these life-changing adventures were carefully curated and arranged to the very last detail. 

CiD also set up a shared online household calendar which meant Richard had visibility of things happening at home while away: trips, outings and holidays could be planned around school term dates, and with CiD’s House and Home reminder service (everything from birthdays to boiler servicing, MOTs to piano tuning - so nothing is forgotten) Ruth finally felt in control and Richard felt part of everything happening at home – and importantly no longer felt he was missing out on seeing his children grow up.

Problem: pressure mounting on this double-career family, with home-life falling on Ruth to organise, and Richard afraid he was missing his children growing up.

Solution: with the CiD team enlisted, both home management and organising quality family leisure time could be effortlessly delegated, leaving both Ruth and RIchard with more bandwidth to focus on their respective careers during the week, and brought together for special moments at weekends and school holidays.

Outcome: home harmony. The family all looked forward to re-connecting and creating magical memories when they were together, with the relief and freedom of knowing their home was being well run and managed. 

[*Names and details have been altered to protect client privacy.]