Night work with children - can it work ?

*Chattie*

Go for it and good luck!

Notmyrealname

jazzypinkpuppet wrote: »

Hello, I am thinking about applying for a job as a night receptionist in a hotel. I have experience and think I would enjoy the job and in theory it fits around the children and my husbands hours like a glove. BUT I have never done night work before and wondered how other mus and dads got on.

My children are 7 and 12 and both at school, my husband leaves for work at nine so can bring them to school he gets home about seven. The hours for the job are 11pm until 7 am four days a week.

So I was thinkng I would get home at half seven, be in bed by eight then get up at half two in time to pick the children up from school at half three.
Then have all night with them and a few hours with hubby before leaving at half ten.

Any advice would be great

I was the father in this situation. It worked OK from a looking after the kids point of view and I actually got to see more of them than I did on days. During the week was OK however the weekends were a different issue. I would finish around 7am Saturday morning, in bed for about the same time as you. However the kids would have me up a couple of hours later. Eventually I just gave up trying to get to sleep on the Saturday morning so would have one day a week with no sleep.

I managed it about a year before it became too much. Its not like this was the first time working nights - I'd done it for a few years before but finished at 2am on a Saturday morning so got sleep every day.

If you are going to be working Friday or Saturday you need to think about this.

dandelionclock30

I've done night work before and found that I couldnt sleep during the day because Im a light sleeper and couldnt cope with the light and the noise during the day.People were talking, walking about outside, cars up and down etc. I also started having blinding headaches etc. I stuck it out for about 4 months then gave it up and then got a job working days there. I also found that about 4-5 in the morning I couldnt stop shivering and feeling really cold.
You might be o.k, but its not for everyone.

Oldernotwiser

Make sure you have some heavy curtains (preferably black out) in your bedroom if you'll be sleeping in the daytime and sleep in the quietest bedroom if possible.

Night work calls for adjustments but can work out really well.