Eric is pretty consistently putting in 12 hour days, which means he's not home until 7 many nights. How do you get the "extras" done when this is the case? Stuff like needing to take the oldest child (the only one old enough to babysit the others) out to purchase needed clothing? We don't have family in town who can babysit, so that's out. And what about home repairs? Do you wait until your husband has a spare 2 hours on a weekend to fix broken things? Pay someone else to do it? Attempt to fix it yourself? What about bills needing to be paid? Eric handles all our finances and wants to do that, but more and more it's becoming an extra for him.
By the way, it's 10 minutes after 7 and he's still not home. I need to run to a store 5 minutes from the house to pick up some boots, but I also need to take the eldest there to purchase jeans. The store closes at 8. Sigh. And he just called. He's just leaving work, so he won't be home until 7:45. Double sigh.
Any good ideas?
5 comments:
I pay the bills, Chris no longer has the time to, but he still does our taxes.
We hire handymen to do repairs, otherwise they will never get done, unless it is something simple I can figure out.
Take Abby shopping on the weekend. The only other alternative is taking all the kids with you, and that is NOT a good idea ;)
Remember this is a temporary state and not too long from now you'll have another daughter old enough to babysit her siblings.
Hang in there! You are a military wife, hear your roar!
That's tough. When I have to go through such times, I have learned to ask for help- to find another mom or two in the same situation and trade babysitting. As far as home repair- if you can afford it, I would find a handyman.
good advice, I esp. like hiring someone to do handyman stuff. 12 hour days are long. I limit my expectations on those days and generally don't do extras. That's only sustainable b/c B has 4 days off out of every 8!
I will do short trip extras with everyone, and in this case i survive by bringing a toy for each child (preferably electronic so they're actually entertained) and reward good behavior w/ something they all like, like mcd's ice cream cones, and load my shopping cart with as many kids as i can.
Shopping for pants i wouldn't do...too much thinking involved!
Can you set up your bills to automatically pay themselves online?
Online shopping? Can get tricky with a growing child - what fits and what doesn't. Often times though (in Canada anyway) you can pay a little for shipping and they have free return shipping. So all that doesn't fit you can send back for free.
if you can swing it,hire a handyman! think of it as giving someone a job!!!
Post a Comment