I

Partner of WoMo - our first PoWoMo blog

There are many brilliant things about being with a WoMo. A WoMo by definition, is a highly competent, mostly unflappable and take no shit woman. And for me, that's a sexy combination.

Especially as being a WoMo she can take me out for dinner and pay for it if she wants to. Its nice to be treated by your partner whether you are a woman or a man.  But that's missing the point - the joy of being a PoWoMo is not the joint income - although we’d be stuffed without it!

The thing is my WoMo is a proper partner in crime, precisely because she works. So she knows what a crap day in the office is like and can empathise. She knows if a late meeting gets put in the diary and I can’t get home as early as I said, that sometimes you have to just suck it up when you have a career. I think as a working man you just respect someone who can juggle being a mum and kicking ass corporately. A lot of people think a relationship can just run on love, but I think the truth of it is that respect for each other is probably just as important.

The stuff she juggles is really important, like our childcare. Whereas I go to work and never worry about that - precisely because I know I can 100% rely on the fact she has it properly sorted. Which is brilliant because it leaves me free to juggle my important stuff, like will she notice if I buy a new bike from the same manufacturer in the same colour as my old one - joke!  (Although I am in the person in charge of family transport!)  I love having a partner who can get stuff done, and I’m convinced its because she has a career as well as being a brilliant mum that she’s so good at it.  

I’ve also found that because her day to day world is so varied (precisely because she is not defined purely be being a mum) - that she has a healthy sense of perspective.  I like the fact that because we both work we share the same ideas - perhaps borne out of the inherent compromise of trying to be good at work and a good parent.  

Here's the funny thing though. A WoMo is a brilliant thing. But ultimately a WoMo is still a woman. And it can be easy to forget that under the ball breaking careerist exterior there still lurks a complicated woman. It took me a while to work out that even though she can do it all herself, and often does, she still sometimes likes to be looked after.  

My WoMo does "Lean In” and she does it bloody well. But sometimes there's no substitute for a hug.