doesn any of you have spouses who works 2nd (or 3rd shift) .or is on call?
mine works second shift (sunday thru thurday) and is on call.
he was call at 10pm and is gone.should be back by 4am.
he worked already on friday his day off( 6am till 2am saturday)...
he is also working this monday morning(supposed to be a holiday,but someone has to work)
how do you deal with the non presence?I feel like a single mom.I can;t hold a job,because we never know when he will be called.
during school,the kids only see him on fridays and saturdays and part of sundays..
the good news,his pay his great,and he is paid overtime.....

My DH is a police officer. He works 8p to 5a. Tough shift but he works five days on four days off. Its nice those four days, and right now he is the only K-9 officer on the street so he is on call 24/7 for the next 9 months!! But, he gets paid pretty well so it has its pros and cons. But it works for us most of the time!!

It is hard not having him for alot of things but, he really bustshis hump to be at all the girls things, and since he works at the beach and we live at the beach it makes it easier for him to stop by while he is on shift and see them run or play softball. There is nothing you can do but deal with this season in your life. This too shall pass (and make you stronger)

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

it has been like that for the past 10 years.
he is not an officer(wow,you must have nerve of steels!!!).he works for the railroad, and works from 3pm till 11pm.and when there is derailement ,he goes(which I really do not like,he goes underneath the train).when there is too much work that can not be handle by the regular crew,he goes.
one part of his job is gone (thank god,working on the cranes...his crane toppled in the bay about a year ago and killed one man who was in the cab of the crane).my dh was seriously injured almost 10 years ago on that same crane.was very happy when they let go of that part of the job!!!
good thing from his job:I also get a retirement out of it!!!
right now he is on a derailement and I can't go to sleep until he calls me back...
.

My Grandfather made his way up CSX by starting out on the loading docks then he was manager of his station then they sent him to school to do the derailment thing (which my grandmother hated) and he loved it!! Exciting I guess?!?! Then he moved into a really comfy office job over looking the (then) pretty waters of the St. Johns River and a great big fat check every two weeks! Just keep in mind that his is working his butt off for a reason! Oh, and I don't know how bad you want a job but, could you do cleanings for offices? Thats what I did and then I was able to drag the kids along with me when I had too.

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

My husband is a dispatcher and I'm not even sure what shift I'd say he works, as it keeps changing. I work graves as tech support, and we just don't have kids. You get used to being alone, but functioning like the rest of the world is difficult. And holidays just don't happen.

My husband works 3pm to 11pm he rarely has the weekend off. He sometimes work 12hours 7 days a week. I feel bad for him but he does make alot of money and it affords me to be able to be a SAHM.
I dont like it because I have to go every where alone and my 2 school age kids never see him but I have learned to live with it.

You have to take the good with the bad.

My husband is a plumber, and is on call for 7 day stretches, usually 2 weeks a month. It sucks, because we can't plan anything with him. He's been known to get paged in the middle of the night, in the middle of dinner, heck- one time in the middle of sex! LOL

I've learned to roll with it. However, sometimes I do feel like a single mom. For instance, he's on call this week, so I know he'll probably be gone most of Monday, so I won't plan anything for Memorial Day.

And boy-- you think doctors get paged alot? Try being married to a plumber!

Holly

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The life of a railroader is very difficult!! My dad is an engineer for what is left of Conrail and my brother is an engineer for Norfolk Southern. Not to mention that they are both local chairman's for their unions.

Growing up my dad was hardly ever around, but we did have lots of "things". He almost missed my high school graduation because he was waiting on his call. Thankfully now people have cell phones!! My brother is having a real hard time getting his visitation with his kids because of his wacky schedule. The judge truly did not understand any job that has you on call 24/7. Sometimes my brother will mark off at 8am, pick up his kids and then get called right back out at 5pm when his rest clears. It is insane!!

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#3 Gone To Race In A Better Place...

My hubby works third shift, his shift runs from midnight to 8 am.

This week has been horrible, he has worked every day from midnight til noon. Then one day he got up so he could go in from 8pm to 8 am. He is suppose to get every other weekend off but that doesnt always happen.

We have been doing this for the past 10 years, before that he was in the Navy. I think that kind of prepared us for me having a lot of time alone with the kids. My boys are older now so it isnt bad but we do miss having hubby home. When he is finally home, like yesterday, we end up working the whole day to do things in the yard or the house that havent been done since he worked a crap load of hours.

Darlene

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Sell crazy some place else, we are all stocked up here.

My husband works 8 to 5 I see him every day at noon for lunch and every 3 weeks he is on call for emergencies within the complex, he is one of the Maintenance people in the 700 lots manufactured housing community. Trust me it gets annoying when he is on call even when he is not, some of the residents here in the community think that the maintenance takes care of EVERYTHING like their car is towed because it was parked in a no parking zone or someone broke the window in their home, not their responsibility you own your home you rent the lot, they take care of no electric if its on the outside end but inside nope not maintenace problem. We get residents banging on our door to complain about the resident managers attitude, trust me DH knows first hand about resident managers attitude and thats why he has his resume up everyone online and is looking for a new job.

I do feel for all of you who feel like single parents when DH was driving a truck for a wine distributor I never saw him loved the $$$ but hated not seeing him, and he left that job and took a $20,000 pay cut to be with his family sometimes family is more improtant the the almighty $$.

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~ Christine ~
Grammie to Trinity Lorayne Jean Keens Born June 9, 2011 Loving my awesome guitar picking 100% Country Boy boyfriend Kenny !
RIP Daddy~ 01/24/1930-06/01/2007 I miss you !
Dont Think you Can .. know you can ~ Jeff Hardy

my hubby's been working in NJ since Sept I've been here alone with 4 kids since then Thank Goodness next month is moving time cause anymore fighting and I'll be locking them in their rooms!

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We have been thru it all!
Right now DH is working 3-11, but since it is out of town, he is gone 2-midnight.
This is his last week tho because he had some heart problems again and was in the hospital most of the week, and I said NO MORE!
He is almost 67 years old and has retired once for a couple of years and then went back to work.
He is on call with the foundry he retired from, but only gets called a few times a year.
The plant he worked at before this one has closed down but he still works for them.
It is only about a quarter mile from our house and he keeps an eye on it, goes in and checks it out a couple of times a week, unlocks it for people who need to get in for various reasons, etc.
Years back he was on the vounteer fire department and was always on call for them.
Moved up to captain and then fire cheif over 2 stations.
His first job was delivering papers when he was 8 years old and has always worked at least one job.
Guess he always will.

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Square dancing is friendship set to music!

I think my dh is like your grandfather,he likes to go on derailement....big kids with bigger toys!!!!
on the other hand ,dh doesn;t want to get into the comfy office job!!!
this year ,he could be working a 9to 5 job,monday thru friday and get a tiny pay raise.but it would mean for him to stay inside his office...(lead man and do all the paper work) ,and he doesn;t want to...

I know when he leaves teh house (around 2pm") but never when he is coming home...

Valorian:I feel your pain!!!! and the kids have been out of school for 2 days and I am ready to lock them!!!!

I work third shift (sleep overnights) and am on-call once a month from Friday - Monday AM. DH works rotating shifts (6-2 pm OR 2-10 pm). It changes every week. I personally like it much better when he works early shifts, but 2nd shift pays much better It works out really well for us. Our son is able to stay home full-time, and we usually only need a sitter either for a few hours in the morning OR a few hours at night. The Grandparents are usually happy to oblige! No daycare is wonderful

My fiance works 7pm-7am. He has had this job for three years but the job before he worked 11pm-8am for ten years. He likes it because there are less supervisors and less red tape for doing things but he doesn't like the grueling schedule of working this way and living "normal" on his days off. And to top it off the fab he works for is open 365x24 so you only get holidays off if you request ahead of time and good luck with that because the people who have been there longer and who are higher up on the totem pole get the first okay on Christmas, Memorial Day, etc.

I have only worked two graveyard jobs. One was at a nursing home and even though we were supposed to stay up and work all night we did all the cleaning, inventory, etc in the first three hours and slept until it was time to get the residents up. Then my other job was at an all night call center. I just slept in my chair until the headphones beeped with each phone call. Sometimes the phone would only ring three or four times in an eight hour shift.

My natural body clock regulates me to get into bed no later than midnight and get up between 4-5 so staying up all night is he!! on me.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

my dh works 6pm to 6am & has one day off every two weeks he actually had 2 days off this week the first time hes had this much time off in at least 6 months maybe longer he called in one day also so it made it 3 days he said he was about ready to fall over so I said go ahead & call in

The thing that sucks is the days he has off he still is on the same schedule so the kids still dont see him much ya know hopefully his hours will change in june he says if they dont he will quit the money is awesome but I have told him several times its not everything. Not when you have missed your babies entire year of kindegarten & the youngest dd's first year of preschool. Its just not worth it.

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mom of 3 greats girls

My DH is also a cop and works from 7pm to 3am and I hate it but he loves it. I get home from work between 4:30 and 5:00 and at about 5:30 he has to start getting ready for work, the only good thing is that they get so much time off and he has sundays off with me and no work for him on mondays so we have a little bit of time but with all his vacation time sick time and comp time plus TC's he gets about 3 months a year that he could take off and on the beat (they walk) all of his time is approved so he takes off the whole week of Christmas every year which if he was on a different shift he would never be able to get it off.

dh works 8-5 and then is on call for 2 towing companies at night.. does roofing on the weekends... he's a workaholic.. I have my days.. so lonely even with the kids.

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