Talkin bout shift work

blg116

From this weeks check-in, I see theres a few of us that wither do or have worked swing/night shifts, or have husbands who do. So, tell me, HOW do you survive shift work with kids? Tips and tricks to actually getting to spend time with your kids, and get housework done? I need all the advice!


Background:
MH and I both work swing right now, but super inconsistent swing. Both start at 3:30 PM, and I'm off any time between midnight-2 am. Hes supposed to be off at 2am, but lately hasn't been getting off til closer to 3:30 which puts him home at 4. Best part is that neither of us know when we'll be off until we're "supposed" to be leaving. 
I'm hoping to go to days after I get back from maternity leave, but even then its gonna be inconsistent- start time between 5-6:30 am depending on work loads, and off anywhere from 3-5:30 pm. As much as I like the company I work for, the inconsistency makes me want to find a new job lately lol. But I won't find anything that pays what I want, sooo.... 

purplefan1

@angieeeeee what do you guys plan to do for child care? That can be the hardest to navigate since some centers have strict drop off and pick up times. 

My partner and I work some weird times to try to cover childcare as much as possible and we pay for two days of daycare (still stupid expensive). I work Mondays and Wednesdays from 9am-8pm and T/R from 430pm-830pm. He works consistently 7am-330pm. So kid only goes to daycare M/W. I also do work at home which I fit in after I get home from work in the evenings, during her nap times or quiet times, and blocks of hours on the weekend. I need to keep my hours at full time between both jobs so I continue to qualify for a loan forgiveness plan after 10 years. It is completely exhausting some days and I literally feel like I never get a true break but hopefully it will pay off in the next 4-5 years if my government loans can be forgiven. Plus I love what I do so so so so much.

creamcheeseplease

@angieeeeee I'm also curious about your childcare plans but I'm sure it will be difficult with both you and your husband having off shifts with potentially fluid end times. Are you and YH both Mon-Friday? How flexible will your job be if you have to leave for some reason on short notice? (sick kid, childcare closure/cancellation)

@purplefan1 the loan forgiveness is so big. I wish I qualified for that! What is T/R? Also, I've been toying with trying to create a schedule to try to reduce daycare costs when we have two in daycare so I'm fascinated by your schedule keeping it to 2 days. 

I work one f/t job which is 8-4:30, usually in office but I can wfh for example if DS is sick or something, has an appointment, etc. Then I have p/t wfh jobs that I do before DS wakes up, and after he goes to bed. MH works 4 days per week, 6pm-6am right now. We currently pay for daycare 5 days per week, because MH needs to be sleeping during the day on the days that he's working. I think the hardest thing for MH has been the times that he doesn't get to see DS, so he does try to pick DS up early on the days that he's off (like he'll pick him up from daycare by like 2 and they spend the afternoon together before I get home from work). It was super important to him to do this even though it doesn't save us any $$ because the times we do this are not consistent, but just because it's harder to spend time with your kid when you're not working a traditional 9-5. When DS was super small, he used to pick him up from daycare for a couple hours and then drop him back off before he went into work and then I'd pick him up on my way home, but as DS got older that got a little upsetting for him to go back, so we don't do that anymore. 

Housework is tough.. honestly if you can afford it I suggest getting your house cleaned on a regular schedule. We did this, but now with baby #2 coming we haven't been doing it. I did put together a schedule where I clean 1 room per day, and when I stick to it that works pretty well. 

blg116

I'm Monday through Friday and occasional Saturdays in the busy season. MH is Tuesday through Friday. Childcare is the big stressor, which is why I want to go to days. Then MH could drop the baby off at my grandparents when he leaves for work at 3 and I can pick up when I'm off. Until that comes though, idk. We live in a small town and I've only seen one daycare that offers late or overnight care. And I was not impressed with the Facebook post that I saw from them (advertising on our towns buy/sell group)- misspelled words, poor grammar, just overall really unprofessional. People have suggested using family, but I only have my grandparents and I'm not going to expect them to watch an infant until 2am, my MIL is a nurse with crappy hours, and my SIL lives across town and has 2 kids of her own, works full time and is a full time college student. Even if any of them said it wouldn't be a problem, I don't want to ask them to take on that sort of additional responsibility. 

purplefan1

@creamcheeseplease T/R is tuesday/thursday.  ;-)

creamcheeseplease

@purplefan1 LOL oh yea.. of course.

@angieeeeee I have to say I'm impressed that there is even 1 daycare with odd/off hours. I have never heard of that at all around where I live. Literally everything here is 6:30am to 6 or 6:30pm max. Sounds like your grandmother would only have to watch the baby a couple hours if you go to days, so thats good, as long as she can do it. If you are in a small town a nanny might not be an option, I'm guessing. Not where I live, but not far, nannies are a big thing especially when parents work odd or long hours. It can be expensive, of course, but in some cases it's not much more than daycare costs. Especially if you plan on having another child. Have you looked at care.com at all?

blg116

Yea my grandparents are more than willing to babysit, but I dont want them to have to do it 8-10 hours, 5 days a week. The nice thing is they're a mile down the road from us, we drive right by going to and from work. 

I've been thinking about looking into a nanny as a short-term care solution. I havent checked care.com yet, I'll have to look into that. 

I'll be able to go back to days no matter what, it's just theres one possibility that could work out to where I only lose my 40 cent shift differential. My boss seems to think that will work, otherwise I would lose almost $4/hour. And that would be rough.