3rd Shifting wifes

I hear ya! Mine actually works swing shift now but used to do straight 3rd. I saw him on weekends and for dinner and that was about it. Keeping the kids quiet during the day for him to sleep was nearly impossible and I hated to even vacuum or do laundry because I didn't want the noise to wake him up. Then I'd be up half the night doing all the things I didn't think I should do during the day. Now at least I get a little bit of a break but I still hate it when he's on nights. He does 12 hour swing so he leaves at 5:30 and doesn't get home until after 7:00. It's not a big deal when it's days because it "feels" normal but when it's 5:30pm to 7:00 am it just drives me up the wall. The kids tend to hear him come in so they wake up, then I spend all day trying to keep them quiet, and as soon as he leaves all you know what breaks loose because by that point they have all sorts of pent up energy...and of course I'm just about out...and I have to do the whole dinner/bath/bedtime thing by myself with three wound up boys. He goes in tonight and tomorrow night and when he gets home Friday morning he starts his 7 off. That is my favorite part of the month.

Lucky for me, he's put in his 3rd shift time, but every once in a while he still works a night or weekend. As for me, I work for the forestry service, and during the spring when the case of fires are heightened, I work some long days, sometimes from 8am or earlier to 10pm. So we are both used to it. And it's not too bad since it doesn't occur all the time.

My husband has worked every shift imaginable, I think. He's worked mornings (5am-2pm), days (7am-4pm), nights (3pm-12am) and variations of those, sometimes leaving at 3am to get to a 4am shift and not getting home until 2am some days. He also works a lot of OT and DT. There have been weeks that we haven't seen him because he works 16 hour days. He'll leave for work at 4am and not get home until after midnight and then get up and do it all over again. It's tough on everyone. When the kids were toddlers he worked nights--3pm to 12am or 1am (depending). He was a supervisor at the time so he was the last one out. I actually got used to it. He would get home, watch some TV then go to bed. I would get up with the kids at 7am and he would get up around 10 or 11am and I would go back to bed, especially when I was pregnant. He'd wake me when he had to leave for work. I had the hardest time adjusting to him working mornings because I was so used to him being home during the day. Morning shift is even harder on us because he leaves at 4am and gets home around 2pm and he's tired and doesn't want to deal with the kids and they have school so we can't do anything after they get home. Not to mention he'll fall asleep before the kids do so he can get up at 3:30 or whatever. It sucked. I don't think he has ever worked a 9-5 shift. He's been off work since August for a back injury and I'm so ready for him to go back to work. We are so broke (he's getting about 40% of his regular pay which is just enough to get by--pay our car payments and insurance). But mostly I'm tired of him being here all day, lol. He's just another child for me to deal with most of the time. I think he said he's going to try to get mornings again so he can at least spend time with the kids that are in school. Of course he also has never had weekends off. He usually has off on Wed/Thur.

yeah mostly wives are only good for holding at night anyway if ya work 3rd shift , then you can't even do that

My husband also works crazy hours sometimes. He's a police detective so he gets up at all hours to go in. At times, I like when I have the bed all to myself and I can just wrap up in my comforter.