On The 9/80 Schedule

Tim's company just switched to the 9/80 schedule. For those not in the know, this basically means that he works 8 9-hour days, and one 8 hour day and then gets every other Friday off. With this change, he and some folks he works with who live in our neck of the woods put a carpool together to better take advantage of the HOV lanes and not have to either leave for work super-dooper early (vs. just super early) or have to sit in traffic for hours. Or both. So now, Tim is loving life as he gets to sleep til 6:15ish, zip out of the house and meet his carpool at about 6:45 and then he gets home right around 6 at night. It's more sleep for him, he doesn't drive all the time, he doesn't have to deal with traffic. Happy as a clam is he.

I, on the other hand, am struggling a bit. My schedule hasn't changed all that much. We are getting up about 30 minutes earlier (because daddy's leaving is now taking place when the doodle is just starting to drift into wakefulness, so he then hears the bumping around and wants to get up) and, instead of daddy being home within 45 minutes of nap time ending, daddy doesn't get home til about an hour before bed time. And the boy needs his daddy time. It's the afternoons that are rough.

I love the every other Friday off. (We had a blast on Friday having Tim home, and the 3 day weekend was lovely.) I love Tim being rested and not a grumpy gus who complains about the traffic and being exhausted all the time. But I don't love the "I need daddy time" whining that has started to kick in about 5 every evening.

That said, I know I have it easier than many. He's still home for dinner. He still does get some daddy time in. It's just obviously going to take more time to adjust than I'd originally thought.