My department at the hospital has decided to give us the option of working Four 10-hour days per week rather than Five 8-hour days. This is an effort to help with the rising cost of fuel, especially since most of us have a long commute to downtown Birmingham. The city of Montogomery and the City of Birmingham have both started this program a couple of months ago, and are no longer open on Fridays.
We have the option of essentially choosing which day each week we will be taking off. As long as we don't have a big event or meeting, and we can provide adequete coverage for our job position, any day is fair game. I thought about rotating Fridays and Mondays, so that every other week I would have a four-day weekend.
It would be so nice to have one day to get all of my house cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry and Dr.'s appts taken care of, and have the weekends to just enjoy with Mark and Wyatt. The problem comes in with the other 4 days a week - currently I am working 7:30 a.m. - 4:15 p.m. and only taking a quick 30 min. to eat lunch- I am usually home by 5 p.m.
With the new schedule, I would be working from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. and eating lunch at my desk in order to cut down on the amount of time I am at work. I would have to leave the house by
6 a.m., drop the baby off at daycare, and not be able to pick him up until close to 6 p.m. - but he wouldn't have to go at all one day a week. The other problem I am hoping to work out is the cost of daycare those 4 days- I am hoping they will keep him an extra hour or so 4 days a week in exchange for not having him at all one day, and not charge us any extra. SIGH! How complicated!
Mark could take the baby and pick him up for us, but he just started carpooling, and it is saving us a bundle of money right now- the last thing we want to do is disrupt it.
Also, are there amy mothers out there who can tell me if it is hard to get a lot done in one day at home while taking care of an infant? Would I feasibly be able to get all laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning and pediatrician appointments taken care of in one day with a baby in tow?
I know my work-week is going to be just crazy, and I probably wouldn't be able to cook dinner especially with getting home so late and taking care of a baby. I am hoping to make a bunch of meals on the weekends and freeze them, or get Mark to help with the cooking.
I am atleast going to try the 4-day work week until I go on maternity leave for the next couple of weeks, and see how it goes. I am not sure how much gas money it will save us, or how much of my sanity, but I am going to not be doing any running around outside of Calera on my day off and see if that helps.
What would you do if given the option??
3 comments:
okay, I am not a working mom, so I am not sure if I am qualified to give advice, but here are my thoughts. I definitely say try for the four days. I think having an entire extra day at home will be wonderful for Wyatt. That means, you would almost be at home half of the week with him, right? As for getting everything done in one day. I can't see that happening if you want to keep your sanity and spend time with Wyatt. I stay at home everyday, and only have one child, and I never get everything done. You have to give yourself a break with all of that, especially at first. And it definitely becomes a team effort!! I do think it would be great if you had one day a week for doctors visits so that you aren't always having to take off of work to take him. Then you can save days off for more fun things. But don't count on getting housework done, and don't worry about it if you don't!!
I would take the 4 day week, definitly. As far as housework, cleaning, cooking, etc.. My big advice is: SHARED RESPONSIBILITY. If you and Mark are both working, the only way to make it work (from experience here) is to do equal amounts of housework. During the week, Zach cooks- I clean. On Saturday we clean and on Sunday we do laundry and do grocery shopping.
I thought about this some more- is it possible to work 9 hours each day and take off ever OTHER friday? 10 hours is just such a long day! If I were in your shoes, that's what I would try to do.
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