Shift Envy

I am so thankful for a husband that works so hard to support his family. Even while the rest of the world is sleeping, he's hard at work protecting his community. Despite the exhaustion that comes with working nights, he still goes into work each night and never complains. It's pretty amazing... I think I complain more than he does!

Six years ago we set out on this journey of becoming a law enforcement family. When I married John, I knew that it would always be like this. Being a cop was his dream long before we were together and I knew that I kind of had to throw away having a "traditional" family life. I would have absolutely married him again, all things considered, but before we got married, the challenging schedule of a cop didn't really sound like a big deal at all to me.

Now that Brooke's in school and all, it's getting harder. John working nights isn't really such a huge deal with her school schedule but his nontraditional days make it a little bit more difficult. He works 4 days on, 2 days off so that means he only gets every 6th and 7th Saturday off. Though I love my life and am completely content, sometimes I can't help but wish that we had those "normal" Saturdays off where we all stay in, eat pancakes and relax together. The girls and I do that, but there's something missing without daddy.

John should soon be able to get on days.. He has enough seniority now but it depends on what the people over him bid. That will be amazing because at least we'll be able to sleep in the same bed and he won't be so physically worn down from not sleeping at night. However, that won't fix these weird days off.. Nothing will.

Sometimes the 9-5, Monday-Friday job with holidays, nights and weekends off sounds so enticing to me. You people out there that have that really have no clue how lucky you are! That lifestyle is so far from what I'm used to that I can hardly picture what that would be like.

There are advantages to John's schedule, though. For instance, when you only work 4 days in a row, it goes by super, super quick. Before you know it, John's off again! Also, it's kind of nice having days off during the week because the malls, restaurants and movie theaters are virtually empty so we don't have to be bombarded with tons and tons of people. On top of that, I always get pleasure when the rest of the world is going back to work on Monday and it's John's "Friday." It feels good to know that at that moment his schedule is better. Lol

I wouldn't trade my life for anything. I know that Johns is doing what he loves and that makes me feel so happy! Sure, the schedule isn't great but he's living his dream and doing what he was called to do and he's so good at it. I would never want him to give that up... Not for anything!