Tausche Firma gegen Haushalt (2003)

Bernd Lackner is a successful architect who travels a lot. His children, Alex (17), Nicki (15), and Laura (12), are disappointed that he has less and less time for them. He always finds reasons why he cannot keep the promises he makes to them. To make matters worse, he arrives very late for his daughter’s birthday and promises her a horse as a present. This is too much for his wife, Katrin, since he was only supposed to get a voucher for a visit to a riding stable. His older daughter, Nicki, is also offended that Laura is supposed to get such a big present. Bernd then promises to take her out to dinner that evening—just the two of them. But things are no longer going as they should at Bernd’s firm, either. A deal with Walter Ricken is on the verge of falling through because the plans for the project have supposedly disappeared. Katrin offers to help out at the office, since she is an architect too and gave up her career only for the sake of the family. She also co-founded the architecture firm with Bernd. Bernd, however, thinks he can manage on his own. But despite his talent for organization, things keep going wrong more and more often. When he goes out to dinner with Nicki, he remembers that he also has an appointment with Ricken and tries to manage both engagements at the same time. Fortunately, his assistant Sonja is with him, so Ricken is never left completely alone when Bernd rushes from one restaurant to another. Nicki misunderstands the situation, though, when she follows her father and sees him with another woman. To make matters worse, Bernd ends up in the women’s restroom, where a plucky woman knocks him out. He tells Katrin about the evening he botched, and their conversation turns into an argument over whose job is harder. They bet that neither of them could do the other’s job. The role reversal is to begin the very next day. While Katrin is already on her way to the office, Bernd worries about getting the children out of bed. They are also not very pleased that their father is going to run the household. Bernd informs his employees and is convinced that Katrin will last no more than two weeks before calling him back for help. But she immediately realizes that the work on Ricken’s hotel is already seriously overdue and gets straight to the plans. Bernd, meanwhile, scorches his shirt while trying to iron, and the laundry ends up in a complete mess too. To get everything organized properly, he draws up a household schedule. Even so, he cannot get the chores done, so he tries buying ready-made food and hiring cleaners. Since there is no longer enough money in the household budget, he secretly gets an advance from the company funds, which his assistant Sonja arranges for him. Bernd also uses her to keep him up to date on what is happening at the firm. He has to admit that his wife has everything very well under control and can even win back contracts they thought were lost. Even Walter Ricken is impressed with her. His contact with his children is less rewarding than he expected: he intrudes too much into their lives but still fails to listen when they have important problems. But they have noticed that their father and Sonja are keeping a secret, and they use what they know to put pressure on him. They want him to do his household duties himself, and he promises to do better. Accordingly, his first home-cooked meal doesn’t taste very good. Since the children help him with the chores, he has time to really listen to them and play games with them too. As a result, their relationship improves greatly. Meanwhile, Katrin is very busy at the firm and even lets Ricken take her out. One day she discovers that money is missing from the company funds and confronts Sonja. She learns that Bernd had thought the office was going to go bankrupt anyway. Katrin sees this as a betrayal of her trust and has such a serious argument with Bernd that he leaves the house, and Alex puts him up at a shared apartment with his friends. But since Katrin still has a lot of work to do at the office, the children are left to fend for themselves. They miss their father, and he realizes how much he misses his family and Katrin too. So he secretly takes care of the household during the day and leaves in time before Katrin comes home from the office in the evening. Katrin praises the children for managing everything so perfectly. However, she increasingly notices the loving little touches Bernd leaves behind. He carefully folds the underwear after washing it, for instance, or leaves her a chocolate heart on her pillow. One day, when she returns from the office earlier than expected, she catches Bernd ironing and discovers that he has been doing all the housework for days. They admit to each other that they miss one another. They finally make up, and Bernd moves back in with his family.