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A person crossing a gap in a bridge by walking over a stack of money

Supporting Your Partner If They Need to Stop Working

Chris Robson's avatar image

By Chris Robson

2 min read

Last week my partner asked me a question: What would we do for money if she had to stop working?

I didn't have an answer. Both of us are self-employed, so we don't get sick days and can't be signed off work or anything, and as both of our businesses are relatively young, we don't have an abundance of spare cash to just take a month or two off work.

However, that doesn't stop her chronic illness, and sometimes having a chronic illness means you need to take time off work. So we were left with a dilemma - what to do if her endo gets to a point where she has to stop working for a time.

Preparing for unemployment

For us, it's a matter of capital. We need to have some money as an emergency fund in case she needs to take time off.

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So that's the first step. But to make that happen quicker, we need to earn more money, perhaps through taking on more clients, increasing our prices, or starting a side business.

This step hasn't been decided yet, but to make saving a few months' income a reality, one of those things needs to happen.

So all this to say, it got me thinking about supporting our partners with endo and what real financial support means. Aside from taking over the chores, running a bath, or picking the kids up from school, a great way to support your partner with endometriosis is to have the financial abundance that they don't have to work if they are too ill and need a break.

At the moment, my partner needs to work for us to keep the life we have, but we want to change that. I want to change that.

I'm going to be making some long overdue changes to my business and really start putting in the work to have the kind of financial stability I haven't had since I left employment.

It's going to be difficult, but the result, a world where my partner feels safe to take time off if she gets too sick, will be worth it. 

Supporting your partner

Supporting our partners with endometriosis and other chronic conditions comes in all different forms, and until recently, this wasn't one I'd overthought about.

But money is so important in the world we live in, and being able to provide financial support to someone you love is just as important.

Perhaps you're already in a position to support your partner in this way, or perhaps your partner has a job that can give them time off or leave for sickness.

If you're like me and neither of those things is an option, perhaps it's time to think about what you will do if your partner needs to stop working.

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The Endometriosis.net team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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