Working a rotating shift

[twosweetgirls]

Do any of you or your husbands work rotating shifts? The new job that DH got rotates four days on (7 a.m.-7 p.m.)/four days off, then four nights on (7 p.m.-7 a.m.) and four off. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I’m finding this to be an extremely difficult cross–for every intent and purpose, I’m now a single parent to Twosweetgirls.

Do you have someone in your house who works rotating shifts? What is/was it like? How’d you manage with children? Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

 

[Nanny_PK]

I grew up with a very similar schedule – my stepdad worked at a plant. It was something like he would work four days/four nights/three days/three nights and then he’d be off for eight straight days. You get used to it.

There’s pros and cons to it just like any regular schedule.

 

[BamaRider]

Though not quite the same, I worked a 24 hour shift every third day.

Work one, off two. I liked it. One week I worked Mon, Thur, Sun, week 2 I worked Wed and Sat, week 3 it was Tues and Fri, then repeat.

Because the tours were 24 hrs we were allowed to sleep, but more often then not we were up, but we did manage to get some sleep, and every once in awhile we got lucky and slept all night.

Debbie and I quickly adapted the schedule to our needs. She worked 8-5 so I stayed home and took of my son on my off days. Days I worked our family helped out. We never had any child care expenses.

Shift has its plus and minus, like anything else. But the rotation shift are the most challenging. I think they stress a relationship. I’d rather they give me a schedule and just leave me alone whether it was nights or days.

On the days I was working Debbie had her routines. She did extra cleaing, and watched the tv shows I didn’t like. She didn’t like sleeping alone every 3rd night, but she knew I loved the fire dept. She was quite resourceful. After my son left home she had the house to herself evrey 3 rd day. And many ladies here would testify what a blessing that can be. No cooking, no chasing after kids, read her book, do what she wants. When I retired I think I messed her up.

Rotating means you never get use to any one thing. Working nights means having to spend your days sleeping, about the time you get us to it, they send ya to days.

It can work, but probably won’t be easy, and it will stress a marriage. I can recall being up all night, get off work at 8am, and my 2 year old son was home waiting for me, and he was wide open, wanting me to play and be with him, when it was all I could do to keep my head up.

OTOH I recall coming home on weekend mornings when Debbie was home waiting for me, she’d keep Chris up real late on Friday nights so he’d sleep late on Saturday LOL.

I know rotating shifts because a huge employer in my area works such a system. I have a few friends and casual acquaitences that work it. NONE of them like it. If given the choice, I’d work for a little less money if it meant regular hours. But providers do what they gotta do to support their family, that is the bottom line.

 

[whatevergirl]

Do any of you or your husbands work rotating shifts? The new job that DH got rotates four days on (7 a.m.-7 p.m.)/four days off, then four nights on (7 p.m.-7 a.m.) and four off. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I’m finding this to be an extremely difficult cross–for every intent and purpose, I’m now a single parent to Twosweetgirls.

Do you have someone in your house who works rotating shifts? What is/was it like? How’d you manage with children? Any advice would be greatly welcomed.

I can empathize with you, two.:console: It can be tough. When we were first married, my dh had a crazy shift…he worked for an airline modification facility, and had crazy hours for years. Like 4am to 1pm, and then off in the middle of the week. Now, he’s with Disney, and works crazy hours…and this year, he has to work Thanksgiving, and possibly part of Christmas day. The magic never stops at Disney.

My suggestion would be to make the most of your time together. Even if you have to rearrange when you sleep, and get up. It can help to align yourself more with his schedule. It is tough with kids, at times, I feel like I’m a single mom on some days. My dh has off during the weekdays, and not weekends, so we often miss him at mass, too. But, make the most of your time together. I imagine the 7pm to 7am shift would be easier…he can sleep until the afternoon, (poor guy, shift changes take a toll on someone’s sleep ) and then you guys could plan early dinners, or romantic time together if you can. It can be tough, but I learned over the years (my husband most of the time has had very erratic work hours) to maximize the time we do have together, and it ends up working. Somehow it all works, and God gets us through!

And pray for patience and strength…and always thank God that he has a good job. There are so many people out of work, I’m grateful that we both have good jobs right now!

Hugs to you–you’ll make it through. Just rearrange your life a bit to accomodate his schedule, and you both will have a lot of quality time together, despite the crazy work schedule.

Good luck!

 

[Feanaro_s_Wife]

**Well, I only have a tiny bit of experience with this since hubby only worked on-the-job training at the fire hall for about a month before he had to go away for the real training.

But that month was awesome! On the days he had to work night shift I would be able to sleep in while he took care of Lily and she would get to see daddy all day. On the day shift days it was no different than before. And then there were the big chunks of days off in a row, either 4 or 6 depending on the schedule. It felt like those big chunks were mini-vacations and it was great to be able to get out and do things that would normally be reserved for the weekends.

Now, granted, the fire hall is not very busy so when he was on night shifts he ended up getting more sleep than when he was at home, lol. And that made all the difference.

Either way, no matter what the situation, you get used to it. You may not always like it, some days are going to be a real challenge, but you make it through and adapt. **

 

[BamaRider]

I agree with Malia you can make the best of it.

If I a took a tour off, I had 5 off days in a row. It was nice and I didn’t mind working a weekend day, because I liked being off during the week to get stuff done that most folks had to cram in on a weekend day. My scheudle I had at least 5 days of the week off.

But I hated working Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Later on when I was top of the food chain for off time, I was able to take off those tours. But you had to be there awhile to get to that point.

After Chris left home, I would sometimes go in and work for guys that had young families at home.

And I didn’t know Milia’s hubby was in the fire academy, I coulda told her she prolly didn’t wanna go that route haha. I mean we’re use to being spoiled and having our way.

The difference in the OP is most jobs don’t allow you sleep at night. When your sleep patterns are constantly changing it makes for not good. The fire service learned long ago, it was better to be creative with working tours, then trying to do three 8hour shifts.

 

[Chronister4673]

My DH just got done with shift work in August (then he transferred two states away, but that’s another story). He would work swings for 7 days, 2 days off, mids for 7 days, 2 days off, days for 7 days, 2 days off, days’ early shift for 4 days, 4 days off. Every 5 weeks his schedule would repeat.

The worst part was the 7 days of swings because I would be alone with the kids from 2 pm until I went to bed. Being alone in the evening is the worst for me. I preferred him being on mids because he would leave right before my bedtime. The hard part of mids was keeping the kids quiet enough for him to sleep.

The best part of his schedule was the fact that I would know from one month to the next what his schedule would be like. I would always know what days I could schedule appointments for. I could plan on fun things for us to do on his long weekends as a family. Often I was taking care of the kids alone, but often he was there to help.

I liked his schedule on shiftwork. But most of it is what you make of it. There’s a saying among military wives: Bloom where you’re planted. Often we have to make the best of less than ideal situations. We can dwell on the hardships, but it’s better to figure out how your family can benefit.

Your husband will have several days in a row off. You can figure on one day to transition, but he will get better at it as he gets used to it.

As to keeping the kids quiet… Well, I never did figure that one out. Especially after I had our last DD. My DH was understanding. Mostly I would try to figure out things to do outside of the house when he was on mids. Library visits, park days, play dates. I would try to stay gone until around noon when I knew he would be asleep. As long as the kids were relatively quiet, he could sleep through them.

 

[HouseArrest]

I have never had to do that - but I think I’d rather be the single parent to the girls than to have to keep switching my sleeping from all day to all night and back again. Hopefully that will work out okay for your husband. I think once everyone gets used to the schedule things will fall into place. It might be a tough few months though.