Redefining my days

Some time ago, when I was training to work at a program for my job, I was talking with a coworker at the end of our shift. As she was busy doing end-of-shift stuff, I asked her if I was going to see her tomorrow. She shook her head then said, “This is my Friday.”

The day was not exactly a Friday but it was for her. Tomorrow, on a weekday, would technically be a “Saturday” for her.

When that happened, I thought, That’s interesting! Changing your days based on your job schedule. Talk about living outside of the box!

With my kind of job, it is never a 9-5 job for us. Plus, some of us aren’t working in an office all day. Some of us are out on the field – going from one location to another. And some of us work anywhere from one to 13-hour shifts. Some longer. (I have seen some shifts that last 48 hours!) So I guess that it would follow that, for many of us, we would not work the standard Monday-Friday workweeks that most people work with their jobs. I know some people who only work weekend shifts (and some overnight shifts on weekends). Or some people who work weekdays and weekends.

Starting next week, that will be me.

For me, Mondays will become my Fridays. I will work Monday and Friday nights, then all weekend. I have worked the weekend shifts in the past (days, not overnights – what they call the “noc shift”). When that happened, my days consisted of work-eat-sleep. There was no time for anything else.

I was recently given a regular shift at work – which means I have a set of hours to work each week instead of being on-call – and that included the weekend day shift. So that meant no more weekends being on Saturday and Sunday that I spend with my family doing family-stuff or getting caught up on things I could not do Monday-Friday. (My husband doesn’t work on weekends.) We took time to prepare for this.

For one thing, we had to adjust our schedules. It’s pretty much not so much my Mondays becoming my Fridays, but figuring out how the rest of our lives will work for this, too. Before I applied for this shift, I discussed this schedule change with my family. The kids’ school schedule will be changing this year, but we figured out a strategy to work on how to get my oldest home from school/group on Mondays and Fridays. We also decided that, on nights I won’t be here to make dinner (my husband works at night), we could get fast food for dinner one night and my oldest could make dinner another night.

But I will no longer be having my weekends on Saturday and Sunday. Those days will be spent working.

And because this was technically my last free weekend to spend with my family, I wanted to cram in as much “family time” as possible. It’s been a good couple of days. We had a daycation, went shopping and went to the skating rink.

After today, Mondays will become my new Fridays. I showed my kids my new schedule on my planner and they know which days I will have free to do stuff with them for the remainder of the summer vacation. And, thankfully, their birthdays are not on the weekends this year – they are actually on my days off – so I will get to plan ahead and celebrate their birthdays with them on those days.

It is an interesting change, but I love doing things “outside of the box” and not living the same way everybody else is living. My sleep schedule will be different and my “weekends” will be on different days. I have always liked having a job that is not your typical 9-5 job or Monday-Friday job. With my weekday shifts, I go to work in the afternoon! I am totally cool with it.

If anything, this has definitely made me realize that, with fewer days for me to spend with my kids each week, we can’t take anything for granted. We can’t put anything off. We have to put our time together to as much use as we can. And get as much out of our short time together that we can. I already have that kind of philosophy with life – don’t take anyone or anything for granted – and I have tried for a long time to get my kids to understand this concept too. Time is so fleeting and life is short. Do the things you want to while you still can.

I only hope this change in my schedule will make them understand, and embrace, that concept all the more.