The Fabulous Life of a Third Shift Worker

Perhaps "fabulous" is not the right word. Maybe something along the lines of . . . exhausted, deprived, or even non-relaxing.

My darling husband, William or Fester, works the vampire shift at the Erie campus of Penn State. He's a janitorial worker. Up until last January he worked for his dad at a janitorial supply/cleaning company. But due to some financial issues, which I won't go into, he decided to look for something that was more stable. Enter Penn State.

As of right now he works 10pm-6:30am Tuesday nights thru Saturday nights. This means that he sleeps most of the day Wednesday thru Sunday, which also means that I don't see him much on the weekends.

And I don't mind that he works third shift. In fact I have a hard time going to sleep on the days he's off because I can't hog the bed! My only complaint really is the days that he works, and that it doesn't leave much room for us to get anything done.

I work at home on Friday so that I can also watch Erin, so I basically have 2.5 - 3 days with Erin all by myself. Which I love most of the time, but every mom knows that there are days when your sweet, innocent toddler drives you up a freakin' wall! I used to do all our laundry on Saturdays, but now I do the laundry when Erin is safely sleeping (since the washer and dryer are in our basement) so it takes me pretty much all weekend anymore.

So why doesn't Fester try to get a job that's first shift? Well, right now my MIL watches Erin 2-3 days during the week, but her work schedule doesn't always mesh with when she watches Erin. So some days Fester goes to his parents house and sleeps there until his mom goes to work. Plus he watches Erin Mondays and most Tuesday. So right now we need that daytime availability that third shift offers.

Now, don't get me wrong, Fester has a great job. He is paid very well, he has the option of getting health insurance (my company current pays all our insurance), he will have a great state pension when he retires, and Erin can go to Penn State at a very nice discount. And his goal is to make it over to a Landscaping position there one day.

I just miss my hubby!

PS. Fester only has to work two more Saturdays and then he moves to working Monday night to Friday night!!