Comments on: Not For Everyone

By: Mommy Cracked

Mommy Cracked — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 20:44:04 +0000

This is SO our family. My husband is a truck driver and is home two weekends out of the month. It’s definitely not ideal, but this is how it’s been for all of our marriage. It is tough, but like you, we are thankful he can provide for us.

By: Lis Garrett

Lis Garrett — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:12:22 +0000

I can really relate to this post! My husband also travels (mostly during the academic year), and so the majority of the childcare duties falls to me. I notice his absence most between 8-10 PM, those two hours we have together alone between putting the kids to bed and falling asleep ourselves.

I often have people say to me, “It must be so hard.” But it’s not, really. You do what you have to do and get on with things. I hate to say this, but it’s when he’s home (especially on the weekends) and we’re off our ‘normal’ schedule that I’m scratching my head about what to do. It’s almost as if he disrupts our day-to-day lives. (eesh, that sounds bad!)

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:28:44 +0000

I know it doesn’t help to hear me say I’m glad Paul doesn’t travel for work, but I really don’t think I could handle it as well as you do. I’m not quite sure how I’ll deal with Paul starting grad school next month, especially with the baby coming, but, then again, we all end up dealing with the cards we are dealt somehow. Whether we like it or not, we manage with what we have. Sounds like you guys are doing great!

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:05:54 +0000

You know what it’s like to be a military spouse. My husband slides in and out o four house easily, with me taking over his roles as needed. We’ve spent the last 8 years of our almost 9 year marriage with him gone. In fact the last house we bought, we moved in, and he was gone for this and that, then deployed. By the time he got home from deployment, we’d lived there for a year and a half. He’d only lived in the house for literally maybe 2-3 months. The area was still new to him other than going back and forth to work where I had learned where things were, etc.

It’s hard, and you’re right, sometimes the hardest part is figuring out roles once they come home again. We do what we have to do sometimes. I’m just glad after 9 years of having a sometimes husband and dad that my husband has been afforded a position where he’s generally home much more.

By: LCM

LCM — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:19:58 +0000

I have to agree that you have to roll with the punches, especially in these economic times. We knew, moving down here, that TD was going to be spending a lot of time at work, so I adjusted my attitude accordingly. It was going to be quite a difference, compared to how much he was around when Fiona was sick. But more recently he’s stopped working late on Fridays and the girls and I are a bit bummed because we no longer have RedBox movie and trashy dinner night! The girls have adjusted to where I have to remind them that Dad is a fully functioning parent. I have to say, I HATE the working from home thing because I feel like I am constantly shushing everyone. The nice thing for us both is that we have older kids, if we were back in the mom with only young kids stage, it might just make us crazy.