After 47 years on this earth, I finally figured out what this world really needs… a four day work week so that every weekend is a three day weekend. It’s not that I don’t want to go to work for an extra day (I don’t), but where do we find the time to do everything?
When you think about how fast times flies the weekends are over before we know it. Let me give you a quick peek at my past weekend. I had to work for a few hours on Saturday and was able to play golf on Sunday for the first time this season (thank you Mother Nature for the dog shit weather). Afterward, a friend was having a BBQ at his home. While there, a few friends were like, “we saw you more when you lived in the city”. My wife had to leave for a political event. So the boys and I were able to have fun after that.
Sunday we were at the zoo all day and exhausted by the time we got home. Now I have to go to work the next day. What the fuck?
This all came about this past week when my wife and I had the discussion about me leaving my “beloved” job and starting to stay home full time.
How does one handle working full time, dropping and picking up the kids from school, making dinner every night, spending time with the kids, trying to stay socially active with your friends and keeping up with everything on social media???
I have to admit that I had it pretty good for many years. I didn’t have kids until later in life, so these sort of problems I never had to face. Now they are hitting me like a ton of bricks all at once.
My kids come first. Always. So, if they are sick or need some quality daddy time, I’ll drop everything for them. Nothing will ever come before them.
So this past Thursday we faced a major crisis at home. Brady (my youngest) had strep and was staying home from daycare. My wife was working from home but had an important call at 9. Backup care never showed up. She had to miss her meeting. She was not happy.
She asked me to start thinking about working from home every day or not working at all. She tried to convince me with some great points: “You won’t have to shower every day, you can grow your beard, you can organize the house the way you want ( I’m NOT a neat freak, people. I just don’t like shit lying around!!), you can work on the landscaping”.
After several discussions, we decided that I should stay at work. We need the income, plus, for personal hygiene reasons its best that I’m not home every day.
This was a tough subject for me. I grew up with a single mother that worked very hard for her children. I have always been self-sufficient and as a husband and father, I want to be helpful with our daily expenses and lives.
By no means is this an ego thing, where a man thinks he needs to be the head of the household. That is not m,e and never will be me. One of the best qualities about my wife is that she is a strong independent woman. On another note, her worst quality is her sense of humor…she doesn’t find me funny at all. SMH! I was the class clown in my graduating class!!!!
Anyway, I digress, everyone has so many things going on in our lives. Finding time for my one or two friends is harder and harder. As adults, we need this time. It’s a special time that we can complain about work, kids, loved ones.
My alone time typically is on Saturday/Sunday mornings when I have breakfast with a good friend at the diner. I wish that I could have more time like this. There are many friends that I have not seen in a long time because our schedules can’t handle a moment of free time. It’s sad because some close friends from years past, I might only see once a year. As we get older, I start to think about how many more times will I even see this person.
A friend of mine recently told me for his wife’s birthday he got her a professional organizer. I thought this was one of the best gift ideas ever. This is what every household needs. Someone to come in and help you with organizing your house and life. I once bought my wife a personal shopper because she wanted to redo her work wardrobe. She loved it and said she got everything she needed in one hour, where she would have spent hours shopping for herself.
That’s why as Memorial Day weekend approaches, I really feel that we need either a shorter work week or more three day weekends. Create bogus holidays like President Trump day.
Americans get less vacation time than almost all the other countries in the world. Fuck, no one works in Europe in August. Maybe make it mandatory for employers to give employees a two-week vacation once a year. This way we can get everything in our lives in line. Something. Anything.
Native New Yorker, now living in Connecticut. Husband, and father of two amazing boys. Kidney transplant recipient, and a big supporter of organ donation #donatelife. Mortgage banker, but not by choice. In my free time, I enjoy golf, reading (especially presidential biographies), and finding that hole in the wall restaurant that has great food.