Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Luke 12:25 (NIV)
About eight-and-a-half years ago, Jay got a new job. Suddenly, we went from the normal or traditional workweek to that of a shift worker. Just the thought of it was scary. Lane was less than a year old and Madolyn was four. Suddenly, I was going to be a single parent seven-to-eight nights a month, which doesn't sound like much, but at the time, it seemed like a huge ordeal to me.
Every January a schedule comes out for the entire year. We know by January 1 what days and holidays Jay will work that year and when he doesn't. It's kind of nice really to be able to plan things out in advance.
From the get-go, we decided we would take the good with the bad and go with it. If he worked a holiday, we would not dwell on it. We would appreciate the holidays he didn't work. The way his shift work rotation works, every month he is scheduled off seven days in a row. It is great for planning vacations without having to use his vacation days. Then he saves his vacation days for the times he really needs to be off work.
At the beginning, I had trouble with the nights. Getting the kids to bed was stressful anyway, and doing it solo was even worse. Fortunately, this schedule came into play once Lane was a little older, and thankfully, he was a better sleeper than his sister!
Often times I would find myself awake at midnight because I was scared, and for some reason, felt safer if I was awake. Silly, I know. I would hear noises outside and think for sure someone was driving down our lane...only to realize it was the train in town. (Boy, is it noisy if the wind is just right...and we live seven miles out!) A perk of not going to sleep was that sometimes I would stay up and clean. Unfortunately, that perk passed.
For years I have prayed that some day, a position would open that would allow Jay to have a more traditional work week schedule, and hopefully by the time the kids would be in junior high and high school and more active with sports and such. It is hard on him when he has to miss the kids' events and I get that.
And you know that saying that you better be careful what you ask for...
Since January, Jay has had the opportunity to work a regular workweek schedule, for the most part. I think he has worked two of his normal shifts in those five months. And although there are many advantages to it, it has been kind of eye opening and surprising to me how much our lives adapted to that crazy shift work schedule. I never realized how difficult it might be to adjust. For all of us.
Instead of working 14-15 days/nights a month (half of those days, the other half nights), Jay is working 20 days. It may not seem like a big deal until you factor in that his days off are on the weekends and we're usually busy running here and there. That is always how my schedule has been, but it's quite a change to him. He is used to having days off where he can get a lot of stuff done around home (and so am I).
Now that summer is upon us, words I never thought I would hear my daughter say have surfaced, "Does dad have to work again?" Something we hadn't considered...our kids are used to Jay being around quite a bit in the summer. Normally, he would only work five actual weekdays in a month. He would work some weeknights in there, but he only slept until mid-morning and would get up and have the rest of the day with the kids until I got home and he headed out again. The good thing is the kids are older so it hasn't created a huge problem as far as their care; it just means my mother has to deal with them on a more regular basis.
I am not complaining about the adjustment at all. It hasn't been horrible or unbearable to live with. It is nice to have him around evenings and weekends. It is just very different. It is also not permanent at this point. He will go back to the shift work (we think) and we'll go back to our 'normal' around here. Regardless, we are very thankful for his job, whatever schedule he is working.
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