Fly in and fly out FIFO life with Coco Rose Interiors.
My name is Ben and I am the other half of Coco Rose Interiors. It’s no secret that we are a FIFO family, so we wanted to let you a little further into our world and raise a glass to all the other mining families out there, trying to find a better life.
The glam FIFO fam
I recently flew over from Brisbane to Perth to start my new job in the offshore industry. My company has put me up in a beautiful hotel, complete with dinner on arrival and buffet breakfast the next morning to get started for the day. My bed is big enough to sleep five people and the room is overlooking the river meandering down through Perth city.
At this point you may be forgiven for thinking my life is pretty glamorous. And from the outer, this all looks very true. But I, and any other FIFO families out there,, can tell you this is not always the case. The FIFO family life is a world of opposites on a 4 week on 1 week off roster. Both very enabling and very restrictive.
We have travelled as a family overseas several times, lived in Indonesia for a year, had a beautiful wedding and honeymoon, a nice home and car, three beautiful girls and now an amazing business venture where our true passion lies. This is the 20% everyone sees, and yes it’s amazing, but the 80% is a hard slog.
The not-so-glam-FIFO-fam
We get heavily compensated for what we do, but it is exactly that. It’s compensation. For the long-haul flights, the isolation from life as you know it and the single parent life your significant other leads. As a FIFO dad, my kids are new little people every time I come home to them. I miss birthdays, holidays, Christmas, weddings and sports days. Unfortunately, even the birth of my third daughter, Coco Rose. (Thank god for Facetime!)
As a FIFO mum, my wife is battling the home front. Petria deals with everyday life essentially as a single mum. She spends every spare minute on our small business, Coco Rose Interiors and averages about 4 – 5 hours a night sleep with the little ones.
This is the unseen 80%. One of isolation, separate lives, long distance phone calls and many photos and videos leading the virtual family life. It takes a strong family unit, open communication and a solid marriage with common goals to make it through.
The light at the end of the tunnel
It’s no wonder then, that we live for that moment. Every 3 weeks when my wife winds down our car window at the airport pickup bay. My girls’ little heads pop up from their car seats, and I see what can only be described as pure joy across their faces. It’s at that moment our life becomes glamorous.
Now, 6 years later we are beginning to see the rewards of a lot of hard work. There’s still so much more to do for Coco Rose Interiors our new business, and my new even time role is finally opening the light at the end of that very long tunnel. We’re breaking through and we want to let our fellow mining families know there is certainly life after FIFO.
We at Coco Rose Interiors aim to inspire a more natural and minimalistic way for people to design their homes (and live their lives!). We source all natural, handmade products and also like to demonstrate how to style and incorporate natural elements into your everyday living.