A challenge that is rapidly approaching me is the new school year, more specifically the new school year for my son.
Why? Would be the obvious question someone outside the situation would ask.
Simple. Work.
My job is a shift work job. A security guard is on a shifting schedule and this is where it makes my life difficult. There is only one shift of the 3 possible I will get on a schedule that will allow me to properly handle my son, the Night shift. I'm in a position where I'm going to have to request to be permanently put on the Night shift. This is where things become a concern. If the answer is 'no' to being permanently put on Nights then I'm going to have to put some serious push into finding a new job. It was something that was inevitable to begin with since becoming a single father, this would just be an accelerant to that end.
In order for the Night shift to work I would essentially put get up in the morning, put my son on his bus, go back to bed, get up in the afternoon to get him off the bus and then stay up until I had to go to work. When I had to leave for work I'd take him over to my mom's place for bed. Though there is concerns with him spending significant time with my mom and the stress it would have on her (seeing as she only came out of the Hospital a week ago) by him only going over to her place for bed it eliminates a lot of problems for her. I'd go to work, when I got off I'd go home and prepare what he needed for school, then perhaps sleep for an hour or two, then get up and head over to my mom's place to get him up and get him going for school.
Now, lets say that I do get the 'ok' to be on permanent nights. There is an additional concern on top of the shift work. Hours. Not hours as in the hours I will be at work, more along the lines of the hours on my paycheck. Currently we have 11 guards. Ideally we only need 10 but due to a number of last minute surprises over the last 2 months we've gone with the option of an additional guard to cover. With that in place it cuts down the number of hours that each person is able to get. On my latest schedule I'm looking at top of 32/week, which is not bad but at the same time there is a week where I'm only getting 24 hours which is a hurt considering I pay $600 for rent, it means that I'm going to have to carry some reserve over from a previous pay check to cover rent which means that things are going to get really trim when it comes to needs.
Going backwards for a minute, to the 3 available shifts I can get on a given schedule the reason the Day or Evening shifts won't work is primarily because of the times they take place. Day shift is 5am - 1pm, it would mean that someone would have to take my son overnight and then get him onto the bus or get him to school. Evening shift is 1pm - 9pm, this would mean that someone would have to be able to get him off the bus and then hold on to him until I'm done work at 9pm. The biggest problems with them and finding someone to fill that gap is that I am unable to rely on my mom to do this and that finding someone else, such as a babysitter (or sorts) would require me to pay them. I'm sure I can get some kind of subsidizing but at the same time with things getting thin as far as my pay checks are concerned it would just be something else that is chipping away at what I've got available to me.
I do know that no matter what the outcome is on if I can go permanently to Nights or not I'm going to have to find some way, in the end, of getting a different job with better hours (and better pay preferably) or finding a way to supplement my Income.
This could be an avenue for my writing, to really push it further than I have previously but that is a topic for my other blog.
Peace,
ClX
Why? Would be the obvious question someone outside the situation would ask.
Simple. Work.
My job is a shift work job. A security guard is on a shifting schedule and this is where it makes my life difficult. There is only one shift of the 3 possible I will get on a schedule that will allow me to properly handle my son, the Night shift. I'm in a position where I'm going to have to request to be permanently put on the Night shift. This is where things become a concern. If the answer is 'no' to being permanently put on Nights then I'm going to have to put some serious push into finding a new job. It was something that was inevitable to begin with since becoming a single father, this would just be an accelerant to that end.
In order for the Night shift to work I would essentially put get up in the morning, put my son on his bus, go back to bed, get up in the afternoon to get him off the bus and then stay up until I had to go to work. When I had to leave for work I'd take him over to my mom's place for bed. Though there is concerns with him spending significant time with my mom and the stress it would have on her (seeing as she only came out of the Hospital a week ago) by him only going over to her place for bed it eliminates a lot of problems for her. I'd go to work, when I got off I'd go home and prepare what he needed for school, then perhaps sleep for an hour or two, then get up and head over to my mom's place to get him up and get him going for school.
Now, lets say that I do get the 'ok' to be on permanent nights. There is an additional concern on top of the shift work. Hours. Not hours as in the hours I will be at work, more along the lines of the hours on my paycheck. Currently we have 11 guards. Ideally we only need 10 but due to a number of last minute surprises over the last 2 months we've gone with the option of an additional guard to cover. With that in place it cuts down the number of hours that each person is able to get. On my latest schedule I'm looking at top of 32/week, which is not bad but at the same time there is a week where I'm only getting 24 hours which is a hurt considering I pay $600 for rent, it means that I'm going to have to carry some reserve over from a previous pay check to cover rent which means that things are going to get really trim when it comes to needs.
Going backwards for a minute, to the 3 available shifts I can get on a given schedule the reason the Day or Evening shifts won't work is primarily because of the times they take place. Day shift is 5am - 1pm, it would mean that someone would have to take my son overnight and then get him onto the bus or get him to school. Evening shift is 1pm - 9pm, this would mean that someone would have to be able to get him off the bus and then hold on to him until I'm done work at 9pm. The biggest problems with them and finding someone to fill that gap is that I am unable to rely on my mom to do this and that finding someone else, such as a babysitter (or sorts) would require me to pay them. I'm sure I can get some kind of subsidizing but at the same time with things getting thin as far as my pay checks are concerned it would just be something else that is chipping away at what I've got available to me.
I do know that no matter what the outcome is on if I can go permanently to Nights or not I'm going to have to find some way, in the end, of getting a different job with better hours (and better pay preferably) or finding a way to supplement my Income.
This could be an avenue for my writing, to really push it further than I have previously but that is a topic for my other blog.
Peace,
ClX
That job in all honesty severely blows. You really do need to find a job that is 9-5, although I don't think that will help matters with your son getting off the bus because I am not sure what time he gets on and off. Still a normal 9-5 shift would be perfect and even some jobs if it is a desk job or some type of regular business job, they might allow you to take a lunch/dinner break whenever Andy does get off the bus so you can be at the stop, pick him up and take him somewhere for a few hours.
ReplyDeleteI understand why that area is important to you because you need somebody to be there for Andy and most of the resources (mom, sis, etc) are in that area but from what it sounds is that it is nearly impossible for you specifically to find a decent job and manage your son at the same time. There has to be a a way to do it on your own though. Here there are community centers/YMCA's that you can have the bus drop your son off at. The place I work at does specifically that. The students that I tutor are dropped off into my care and I take them to get them a snack or a lunch and then we work on their homework or whatever issues they have at school and then at the end they get some free time to hang out and play. Good way for Andy to meet new kids his age as well as get active. I don't know how it is in your area for that but if you had a place like that in your area, go there and find out what it is like. It might be of great assistance for you for the time being and allow you more options. Don't be afraid to put Andy in the hands of a place like that as long as you take the time to research it first.