working alternate days as DH

amajane

To try to save money and spend more time with DD I am thinking about working 4 days a week (Thu-Sun) while my DH will continue to work Mon-Fri.

That makes me kind of sad that we won't have a full day off together. But DH's work is pretty flexible in that he can work from home and go to or leave from work pretty much when he feels like it. So it's not like we won't ever see each other.

But we would save so much money by not having a full time nanny and I could do lots of fun thing with DD and have time to take her to all her doctor's appointments.

Anyone else working opposite of their DH. How do you make it work? 

EveryNameIWantIsTaken

Lots of times we do and it works just fine.  I really can't remember the last full day we had off together.  We get in some good time together in the evenings when ds is in bed.

Halo79RN

we have for the last year and I won't lie.. it's rough.  I only work 2 12hr nights a week, usually weekends. dh is a professor at a college and works long hours and many times from home on the weekends anyway. I try to schedule a weekend off a month which means 2 weeknights with zero sleep except the kids naptimes the days surrounding those nights. rough... but I think it's important.  I may feel different if I didn't work nights.. but I'm exhausted and I miss some of the things we did before this... like story time every night with dc and going for hikes every weekend.  but this works out best for us. I would hate to work days and not see my babies for those 3-4 days a week ... esp given dh wouldn't be able to either.  so we do what we must. 

Brit1017

DH and I work separate shifts (I work days and he works evenings), and his schedule shifts from week to week. Basically, we have some weekend days together every 3 months. Most weeks we don't see each other at all for 3-4 days at a time. We have had this schedule since we got married, so we are used to it. I'm not going to lie, it is hard to so long without seeing each other, and it is hard to never have a break when it comes to DS.

On the other hand, I really think that seeing each other less often makes us appriciate the time that we do get to spend together more. We don't go out often, but just sitting and talking or cuddling and watching TV becomes special when you don't get to do it often. And we both really like that DS spends the majority of his time with one of us- and not having to pay for full-time childcare is huge.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G

I work Wed-Sat and it works pretty well for us. If you have the option of doing Wed-Sat instead of Th-Sun I would reccomend it for two reasons.

First, we initially only had DS in daycare two days a week (because I actually used to work Th-Sun.) I found he did much better with the adjustment and transition with 4 days home then 3 days in daycare vs 5 days home then 2 days in daycare.  

Second, after working both weekend days for 2 years it completely burned me out- it is extremely difficult to not have a day to spend as a family, plus I found myself resenting the fact that I missed EVERYTHING- pool parties, baby showers, etc., working both weekend days.

So now I am really happy with our schedule because it gives DS time with us together, time with us individually and time to do his own thing at daycare- it has been great for him. He is home with me on Mondays and Tuesdays, in school on Wed, Thurs, Fri, home with Daddy on Saturday and then we are all together Sundays!

lona.hunn@gmail.com

It's not easy and can be hard on a marriage, but we do it for DS and finances. Husband works Mon-Fri and I work Fri-Sun. My mom watches DS on Fridays while we are at work.

The biggest problem I find is that when we ever want to start a large home project (like painting or cleaning the garage), we do it alone. I'll start it during the week, then DH takes over on the weekends. It would go so much quicker and happier with the 2 of us doing it together...

lynne114

My DH works mornings and I work nights bartending.  We have been doing this for about a year because we knew once our DD came we needed to be working opposite hours because we dont want her in day care.  My parents watch DD for 3 hours/4 days a week to cover when DH and I are at work.  Ill be honest there were a couple months that we only had a whole day off together once a month.  We finally decided that if this was going to work we needed to spend 1-2 days a week together.  It works out but is not ideal (b4 DD, DH would come to my work just to see me, now the only time we see each other is when one of us is sleeping and our days off.) 

Good Luck!

kertybird

Yep, we did that for about a year...it isn't too bad and you really get used to it after a while.