I just want to make one thing clear at the start of this, I’m not looking for another spouse, I’m not even looking for a slightly different one with more AJAX, reflections, big fonts or glossy buttons; the one I have is just fine with me.

No, this blog post is all about two lovely things. One is the idea of Spouse 2.0 day, which I think is just a wonderful idea. Here is the description from their site

On Spouse 2.0 day you should…

• Buy your significant other a present in appreciation of all the the time you neglected them while running your start-up this year. They shouldn’t have to wait for Christmas to get something special!
• Post about your special gift, and the sacrifices your spouse has made on your blog, twitter or other self-publishing services.
• Tag all photos and posts with “Spouse 2.0” as evidence

The other really lovely thing in my life is my wife, Bex Fishman, who I think is amazing anyway, but who I think has been even more amazing this year in her support of me. 

Those of you who know me will know that I’m a dad and that I went freelance this year. Bex has been amazing through both of those things. She’s a great Mum to Sam and has been doing more than her fair share of things this year while she’s been helping me to launch. I’ve had to work evenings and weekends sometimes and she’s done the Samcare more than normal to provide me with support. Things are starting to settle and I’m starting to have a more normal time in lots of ways, but there is a lot of work and I’m still having to work evenings sometimes and weekends to keep up. Thank you for this love. 

She’s also put up with the slightly patchy cashflow that comes with becoming a freelancer. She’s coped with the stress amazingly well. We also took on a bigger house and mortgage last year and with the current financial turmoil it’s all seemed precarious, but she’s been so supportive and never once told me to just go get a proper job and even told me she’d rather I didn’t as apparently I’m way less stressed now. 

She did a couple of totally amazing things in the really early days of me going freelance which really set me up. Firstly, I felt I needed to go to San Francisco to Google I/O to reboot myself in terms of tech and thinking and meeting people. We did part of the trip with my air miles, but Virgin could only sort out a ticket if I flew back First Class. She gave me almost all of her hard earned air miles. I’m still so touched about this, especially as her brother lives in New York and she was giving me something which would make it harder for her to see someone she adores. I’ll never stop being touched by this amazing gesture. She obviously coped with Sam as well for nearly a week while I was away. The trip gave me huge confidence and I met some amazing and important people. 

The second thing she did was to look after Sam in crazy heat in New York while they were both suffering from jetlag while I was at Graphing Social Patterns East. Again it was a conference of real importance to me to be at and be meeting people at and she really went the distance to make it happen for me. 

So what token can I give for such amazing things she’s done for me. I can’t really think of anything big enough except for one thing I know she wants. It’s a simple thing and it’s totally hers, she’d like a mall day, free of toddler where she can go, be pampered, try things on and sort out her wardrobe (I think she looks great, but I’m biased). So that’s my gift to you, love. I’ll look after Sam for a day in January (which will be a treat for me) and you get your toddler free shopping day with a few extra surprises thrown in.

Thanks to Ashley Angell, David Novakovic and Chris Saad for coming up with this top idea and thanks most of all to Bex for her support.