The wives and girlfriends of your local tradesman are set to emerge as the new glamour class giving footballers' wives a run for their husbands' money, according to a survey on social trends (Local Life Report). It claims that the wives and girlfriends of tradesmen are the new WAGs!
The "Brickies' Wags" are just one of six new social types expected to expand hugely to more than 22 million by 2017, according to research by Future Foundation.
The report states that the wealthy tradesman's wife blows his cash on designer clothes, reads Vogue, favours champagne along with gold jewellery and a performance car and follows the mantra that money is the best measure of success.
Apparently you are most likely to find the tradesmens wife in Hillingdon, north-west London, Bracknell Forest, Berks, and Three Rivers, Essex - all within easy reach of central London where her husband earns a fortune. But her numbers are expected to increase five-fold as more and more young women aspire to meet and marry a tradesman and live happily ever after in the lap of luxury.
The role of tradesmen's wives
Remember - don't believe everything that's published! The real story is that behind a lot of successful builders lies the secret of their success. Some of these so called WAGs offer invaluable support and are often exceptional organisers with far more business sense than their more practical partners.
From my experience, since running JuggleFrogs, these fantastic tradesmens wives and girlfriends are the ones picking up the phone to book jobs, sorting emails, invoicing and doing lots of other jobs to make the business a success - including getting their hands dirty when needs be!
So all in all I'm not sure how I feel about all of this - I am sure WAGdom is just the latest fad being talked about - but for those tradesmen who have made a success and are doing well for themselves, just make sure you take enough hours off in the day to enjoy the money before if all gets burnt in Harrods!
Any tradesmen's wives out there I would love to hear what you think?!