(Warning--this is a totally depressing post.)
Being a cop's wife that is. If I'm being perfectly honest, there are more negatives than positives in my opinion.
When we moved into our larger home, we obviously knew that more $ would be coming out of our pockets to pay for this gorgeous place. So my husband, being the sweet, sacrificing man that he is, started signing up for more contracts (part-time jobs contracted out to police officers by varying locations for time and a half pay.) We both knew that additional contracts were a necessity before we moved into the house and we were ok with that. We were willing to make the sacrifice.
Now that we are here, I am of course spending A LOT of time alone. For the most part, I am ok with it, but sometimes it catches up with me and I just get downright lonely. I don't have a "best friend" here, but I am slowly making friends, so that's good I guess. I would get involved with MOPS or other groups, but my schedule revolves around Jimmy's schedule. When he his here and not preparing to go to work that night, I want to be here too. I wouldn't be able to be a committed member of any group right now, so I just don't do it.
Jimmy is here during the day, but the time that he is awake is spent playing with Harper and switching babysitting duties so that one of us can go do something that needs to be done. I'll watch him so Jimmy can launder his uniforms and then Jimmy will wach him so I can clean house or grab a shower. By the time we are done with all of that, he heads back to take a nap before going into work all night. He wakes up, showers, gets ready and heads out the door by 5:00pm. Harper is usually in bed by 6:30-7:00pm and then I'm on my own for the night. I'll clean, blog, watch TV or work on a project and then go to bed around midnight. Jimmy gets back home around 6:30am, crawls into bed and then I am up with Harper by 8am. I don't get to talk to Jimmy until lunchtime when he wakes up and it starts all over again.
That is our daily schedule, but now with so many contracts, he is gone when he would normally be here with us.
Don't get me wrong. I am so thankful that he is willing to work contracts so that we can enjoy our lovely home, but I feel like I enjoy it by myself quite often.
Another huge downside to the contracts is their locations. Most of the time, Jimmy will work at a bar downtown and will come home with all kinds of stories about the women that hit on him all night. He stands outside the door and is the first person that many of these drunk women see as they stumble out onto the street. He told me about a situation just the other night where 3 women shouted at him, "We have 3 questions for ya! How old are you, are you married and if so are you happily married?!"
Where is the respect? I realize that they were drunk, but I'm sure they were coherent enough to know exactly what they were doing. I am never concerned with Jimmy and his professionalism, but it gets rather annoying knowing that your husband is constantly gawked at by other women. (Ok, so it's a compliment too, but you get my point.)
All obvious negatives aside, these are the additonal aspects of Jimmy's job that really start to suck after awhile.
Most days, I deal with it just fine, but there are days like today. It's all part of being married to someone in law enforcement I suppose.
I feel better now that I got that off my chest! I hope I didn't depress you :)
Have a great weekend!
Being a cop's wife that is. If I'm being perfectly honest, there are more negatives than positives in my opinion.
When we moved into our larger home, we obviously knew that more $ would be coming out of our pockets to pay for this gorgeous place. So my husband, being the sweet, sacrificing man that he is, started signing up for more contracts (part-time jobs contracted out to police officers by varying locations for time and a half pay.) We both knew that additional contracts were a necessity before we moved into the house and we were ok with that. We were willing to make the sacrifice.
Now that we are here, I am of course spending A LOT of time alone. For the most part, I am ok with it, but sometimes it catches up with me and I just get downright lonely. I don't have a "best friend" here, but I am slowly making friends, so that's good I guess. I would get involved with MOPS or other groups, but my schedule revolves around Jimmy's schedule. When he his here and not preparing to go to work that night, I want to be here too. I wouldn't be able to be a committed member of any group right now, so I just don't do it.
Jimmy is here during the day, but the time that he is awake is spent playing with Harper and switching babysitting duties so that one of us can go do something that needs to be done. I'll watch him so Jimmy can launder his uniforms and then Jimmy will wach him so I can clean house or grab a shower. By the time we are done with all of that, he heads back to take a nap before going into work all night. He wakes up, showers, gets ready and heads out the door by 5:00pm. Harper is usually in bed by 6:30-7:00pm and then I'm on my own for the night. I'll clean, blog, watch TV or work on a project and then go to bed around midnight. Jimmy gets back home around 6:30am, crawls into bed and then I am up with Harper by 8am. I don't get to talk to Jimmy until lunchtime when he wakes up and it starts all over again.
That is our daily schedule, but now with so many contracts, he is gone when he would normally be here with us.
Don't get me wrong. I am so thankful that he is willing to work contracts so that we can enjoy our lovely home, but I feel like I enjoy it by myself quite often.
Another huge downside to the contracts is their locations. Most of the time, Jimmy will work at a bar downtown and will come home with all kinds of stories about the women that hit on him all night. He stands outside the door and is the first person that many of these drunk women see as they stumble out onto the street. He told me about a situation just the other night where 3 women shouted at him, "We have 3 questions for ya! How old are you, are you married and if so are you happily married?!"
Where is the respect? I realize that they were drunk, but I'm sure they were coherent enough to know exactly what they were doing. I am never concerned with Jimmy and his professionalism, but it gets rather annoying knowing that your husband is constantly gawked at by other women. (Ok, so it's a compliment too, but you get my point.)
All obvious negatives aside, these are the additonal aspects of Jimmy's job that really start to suck after awhile.
Most days, I deal with it just fine, but there are days like today. It's all part of being married to someone in law enforcement I suppose.
I feel better now that I got that off my chest! I hope I didn't depress you :)
Have a great weekend!
I wish I could move to Wilmington and be your BFF :(
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you are having a bad day! Hugs!
ReplyDeleteI sorry you're having a rough time. I go through this too. Kind of off an on. Sometimes I'm ok sleeping along, and sometimes it really bothers me.
ReplyDeleteHope things smooth out for you!
My police officer boyfriend and I live together and I can totally relate! There are times when I am so lonely and tired of hanging out by myself, or going to things by myself, because he is at work. Luckily, he just switched back to 2-10pm, so we get to sleep in the same bed at night, but it's still hard dating a police officer, and most other women don't understand. I am the same way about having my schedule revolve around his time off too. I am a teacher and so we work completely opposite schedules. Thinking of you girl!
ReplyDeleteI know exactly how you feel. Being married to a police officer is definitely hard the majority of the time. I'm lucky that Edwin's no longer on patrol, so he doesn't work that awful 6-6 schedule anymore but he does still work nights and weekends.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you don't live closer, we could hang out with the little ones some time!