Private pilot — not the live service
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Route / 5 steps

Before a first child

For the year before, while both of you can still think about it in the abstract.

Who this is for

You are thinking about a first child, or you have decided and it has not happened yet.

What it is

Positions stated separately on children, work and money, then both readings side by side, then a written division of what each of you takes on.

The steps, in order

You can take them out of order. Nothing here locks a module, and no step waits on the one before it.

  • Horizon

    Eight things that reorganise a life.

    Children, work, money and where you live — a stated position each, and “I don’t know yet” is a real answer.

  • Ground Conditions

    What you saw growing up, and what you do now.

    What each of you saw growing up, which is what each of you will reach for without noticing.

  • The Load

    The argument that is never about money.

    The money, and the work nobody counts.

  • The Ledger

    A record, not a scoreboard.

    A record of what actually gets carried, started before it becomes contested.

  • Your Terms

    Ten sections. Plain language. Both signatures.

    The family and future sections, written while they are still hypothetical.

A route, not a gate

A route is a named list of modules with something written down at the end of it. Nothing in a route locks anything, and you can take the steps out of order.

Why a route rather than a list

Thirty-two modules is a lot to look at when you do not yet know which of them you need. A route is somebody having already answered that: these ones, in this order, because the earlier ones give the later ones something to work from. The Structural Report is easier to write an agreement from than a blank page, and it needs two finished Soundings before it exists at all.

What it does not do

It does not lock anything, and it is not a course. Nothing is withheld until you finish a step, there is no schedule, and stopping halfway costs you nothing — what you wrote stays written and the modules stay open. Where a module genuinely needs both of you, that module is what waits, exactly as it would if you had opened it on your own.

What it never shows either of you

A route shows where each of you has got to and nothing else. It does not record how long anything took, or how long the other one has left something undone. Elapsed time is not a number this product prints about a person.