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December 2010 Moms
kat81again2
member
s/o SAHM post
kat81again2
member
Hey I have a question for people from the SAHM post. It looked like a lot of your husbands got home at 4:30 or 5? Or 5:30? Do either of you have to work from home after LO goes to bed in order to get everything done?
Out of curiosity, what jobs do they have that they can come home so early, yet they are still making enough money to support the family? My DH and I both work and his job almost always keeps him away longer. He usually has to miss bedtime. And we don't have extra cash lying around after all of this.
We are relocating for my career and DH is looking for more work. I'm wondering if he should switch to a different field....
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Re: s/o SAHM post
Depends on the project DH is on. Last year for about 7 months he was working 80 hour or more weeks. We never saw him. Maybe a couple hours on Sunday. This year he's home by 5ish but leaves for work at 6. He's an electrical/computer engineer.
My DH works as an auto tech (mechanic), gets off work at 5:00 and only has a 15 minute commute. Currently he makes just enough for us to survive each month. The thing I miss most about working is having spending money.
I've been contemplating getting a pt job or starting my Etsy business again so that we have some extra money to do fun things.
eta: Forgot to answer the rest of your questions! lol
I had a laser cut wood and acrylic jewelry shop!
I used to be a graphic designer and ran a laser cutter at an awards shop and they let me cut out my own pieces. It's been closed for a couple of years now, although I think it was listed on the site that Loves made for us.
I can PM you a link if you're curious to see what my stuff looked like. I think you can look at my past sales.
Once dh is home he is home for good, no after hours working. He has about a 45 min commute but his job is flexible enough to set his own hours so he is out the door at 630 (usually misses seeing A wake up) but is done at 415 or so and can come home. He's a computer programmer. His job is enough to sustain us but I work part time for the fun stuff like swim lessons, shopping, vacations and to save money. I'm a nurse so unfortunately I am usually the one who misses bedtimes since my commute is the same 45 min and then it's a 12 hour shift.
My husband gets home at 7 or 7:30, so he still has time to be with Alexander for an hour or two before he goes to bed. He has an hour and 15 minute commute into NYC: he walks to the PATH, takes the path to the NJ Transit, then gets in his car from the train to get home! It's a long commute, but I think he usually just sleeps.
He works for the National Archives as the director of education, and being that it is a pretty secure government job, he makes enough for us to live comfortably middle class in the Metro area, which is pretty expensive. Well, with my paycheck too. We wouldn't be able to be a one income family...almost no one here is unless the husband is like, super rich.
ETA: Oh yeah, about twice a month my H works on weekends, but gets flex time for it (meaning he gets like 8 vacation hours for doing it). So it's nice that he can usually take off when he wants, especially because he is the head of his department.
My H is a Marine biologist with the state. His office is less than 15 minutes away. He gets off work most days at 4:30 and is home by 5:00 depending on traffic.
He rarely has to bring work home with him because it's not work that can be brought home. When he used to do interviews for charter boat captins, he would bring that home but that has been given to someone else. There is an occasional time that he has to work late if they get stuck out on the boat.
There is also occasional weekend work but he usually takes a day off during the week to compensate for it if there is no overtime.
He makes enough to support us, pay extra to the mortgage, and put away in both ours and P's savings account.
I'm not a SAHM, but I always wonder about careers and hours too. My H works in records management for an oil company. He works 7:45 - 5:30 and is usually home around 6.
We both work a compressed schedule where we officially do 9 hour work days and then get every other Friday off. Sometimes I struggle with the thought that I could double my evening time with B during the week if I went to a traditional schedule, but I really like having that 3-day weekend with the family.
BFP #2 5/27/12. EDD 2/1/13. m/c and D&C 6/21/12.
My DH gets home at 5:30 but he leaves for work by 5:30 as well. His hours on a good day are 7:00ish- 4 and his commute is over an hour. He does work overtime at times, though, and during LOs first 6 months he was away from home from 5:30am-7 or 8 pm most nights. It sucked and he barely saw her. Most of his coworkers work more like 8-5 or 9-6 but he asked to shift his schedule earlier in order to see DD before her bedtime. He is gone before we wake up in the mornings.
He does sometimes work after DD goes to bed as well. He's a structural engineer. He does make good money, but I don't think most in his position do quite as well. We still don't have much left over at the end of the month now that I've stopped working, but we do set aside money for college and retirement so I can't complain.
Until last month I was a teacher and I put DD in daycare from 7-5 and then I worked after her bedtime and on weekends. It was miserable. The house was a mess, dinner was crummy, and I was exhausted and stressed out.
DH is a systems engineer and works for a gov't and commercial contractor. He starts work around 6:30 or 7am and leaves around 3pm, 4pm at the latest (he chose early hours but has coworkers that start later and leave later). He occasionally needs to work from home or offer client support at random times. His commute is about 45 minutes.
I have a parttime freelance editing business and I do my work while DD plays and sleeps.
MH's office is close to home, so when he does leave on time, he can be home by 5:30. But, about 3 days a week, he works late, which can be anywhere from 6:30 to 11pm depending on what he's doing. He works on the road a lot. When he is home & his work phone rings, he is obligated to answer it, too. So, like last night at about 9:30, he was on the phone.
I WFH F/T, so while I did answer the SAHM post, my case is a little different. My hours are flexible most of the time, so I have P/T daycare. Most nights I work after DS goes to sleep to make up for taking long lunches, etc. I will put in hours on the weekend, too.
ETA- MH works for the state & I work for an E-learning video production company. Neither of us have high paying jobs, so we both definitely have to work! I used to commute an hour each way, but switched to WFH when I had DS & now the whole production side of the company is set up to work remotely, so I no longer have an actual office to report to.
I love the flexibility my job gives me, but the low salary is definitely the trade-off. Right before getting PG with DS, I passed on a job in NYC for $20k more b/c while the $ was nice, I knew that we'd be starting a family soon & the time away from home it would entail was more than I was willing to sacrifice.
We also bought the house we're in mainly b/c it was close to MH's job.
My DH is a Facilities Maintenance Manager at a large Pharma research and developement building. He goes in at 5:30 am. He also has times that he has to go into fix something- at ALL hours- since even the managers have to be on call. Just last week his f-ing phone went off at 10 pm- he had to go in since all the rooms HAVE to be kept at certain temps, humidity etc- otherwise it could ruin all the data- those are easy fixes sometimes things fail- and he is there for 12 hours- like when we had flooding and power outages.
His salary is more than enough for me to stay home- Even before the boys my job paid for the fun stuff I wanted, more elborate vacations, I also did alot for my sister's kids ( paid for dance lessons, karate, horse shows- that has stopped since I SAH)- and we live way below our means.
In our family, DH SAH and I work full-time doing PR for a utility. My company offers alternative work schedules so I could work 7 to 4, 8 to 5, or 9 to 6. I choose to work 9 to 6, because I like exercising and playing with DS in the morning, but if I switched schedules I could theoretically be home by about 4:30. I do work through lunch every day, but I rarely bring work home with me, and I usually only work late occasionally.
People tend to assume that with my DH staying home that I must have some crazy, six-figure salary, but that's nowhere near true. We have a very modest lifestyle, but the work-life balance is most important to us right now, so we're happy with where we're at.
Yes please