Work and Family

I am not sure this has to do with British (Yorkshire?) culture or just my husband's weird family:

Everyone in my family--me, sister, brother, both parents (before they retired)--went to work five days a week.  We left the house every day, went away to work all day (or all night depending on their shift) then returned. Our work was separate from our home life.  While we had an idea of what everybody else's job was, we weren't really involved with the jobs of other family members.  It was the same for everybody I knew in New York who had a paying job.  They left home, went to work, then returned many hours later. Their work lives and home lives were separate.

Everyone in my husband's family seems to work at home, in their own business, at least part of the time, and the family's businesses are all inter-related.  My husband has a part-time job as a support worker, but he spends the rest of the time working on a web design business from home.  My mother-in-law also does some support work part time, but also has her own business of  buying, refurbishing, and reselling houses, and taking in lodgers.  Her business' website was designed, and is maintained, by my husband. My brother-in-law runs his own construction business.  He works on the houses my mother-in-law refurbishes.

A little while before I got married, my mother-in-law had me help her put up some fencing around the garden of one of the houses she was fixing up, because, as she told me, I'm "part of the family now." I found that to be odd.  My father worked in the post office; he never asked me to help him sort the mail.

My husband thought it was strange when I started looking for a job in Leeds. To me, hopping on a train in York and arriving in Leeds 30 minutes later is extremely natural. Not much different from my previous commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan. 

I don't know if this is just my husband's family, or if people in Britain/Northern England/Yorkshire have more of a tendency to combine work and family life.

Welcome to becoming part of the Family business.....My parents ran businesses (My mom had a pottery studio , My dad had a photography business - still does actually) so it was expected that I would work with them.  Years later after my dad retired from the Navy he went back to running a business and expected both my mum and me to help out. I had many a fights with my dad over this as even though I studied he expected me to use my spare time working alongside him. Still does actually hence my hesitations to visit him very often.

Anyway I can see where they are coming from they expect you to be part of the family business..I don't think it's a Yorkshire thing. Family businesses tend to want to keep things networked within the family more for economic , familiarity and security really.

I've got to agree with Alicia.  That's not a Yorkshire thing, that's a family thing.  I grew up on a farm(the ultimate family business) plus my Dad is also a carpenter/contracter and we were always expected to 'help out'.  If you don't feel comfortable with this you need to say something now, before you become an intregal part of the business. 

Thanks. I know I have to say something now. 

Alot of the problem is that I wasn't able to work while on my fiance visa,  and I still haven't found a job yet, so I have more free time, and I need to keep myself busy anyway. (I've been helping my husband with his websites, writing stories and news articles and moderating forums).  I need my husband and in-laws to understand that after I come home from a full day's work,  and I'm tired and maybe had a very stressful day, I might not want to do a second job.