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FAO anyone who works night shifts please!

firstly, i hate my current job, im a waitress and i did 2 daytimes and 2 evenings a week, but im currently on maternity leave which is due to come to an end in december (january if you add on my holiday entitlement).


anyway, today in my local paper there is an advert for a job in the care home 5mins from my house looking for part time care assistants for night shifts. i rang up to enquire and the hours would be 2 or 3 nights a week 11pm- 7/8am. so my question is do any of you work hours similar to this and if so, do you cope ok?

my son has always been a good sleeper and my baby (4months) now sleeps 6.30pm- 6.30am with a dreamfeed at 10pm so actually doing those hours wouldnt be a problem, and if i stayed in my current job i would have to rely on my mum to provide childcare and even then i wouldnt be able to work any more that 10 hours but if i did this night job then i would. im just concerned that it seems a good idea on paper but would i regret it a few weeks down the line?or does your life improve because you get to see more of your children as you are not giving them to someone else?


advice please, and also could i have an idea of how you plan your days and when you sleep? i was thinking i would go to bed at 7pm for a couple of hours when they do. please feel free to tell me if im insane also! and finally, with regards to be on mat leave, i decided prior to going on it that if the right job with the right hours came along i would sacrifice the last couple of months of it.



sorry to waffle on haha!

sophie
archie (4years next week!)
and phoebe (4months next week!!)
xxxx

Replies

  • I worked nights before I had a baby. & I hated it. I used to work 4 nights on 4 off. It was from 9pm-7am. You finished at 7am came home & went straight to bed which I never got a proper sleep as daytime noise just kept me awake, ppl driving, cutting grass, kids out playing & this is before I even get onto the sun coming through the curtains. Then when it got to it days off ur 1st day was spent trying to get back into day mode & ur last day off u were trying to get back into night mode.

    Personally I could never go back to that type of work. But I don't want to put u off if u think u could do it, just wanted to give u my experience of it.

    Jxx
  • Hi G/c'ing but I work nights in a residental care home. I only started back in January. I won't lie, it has taken some getting used to! The tiredness is a major factor, remember you have to be polite and courteous at all times, even if you've had a bad night, you then have to go home and try and be patient with your family, too!! You also do the bulk of your work at the end of your shift rather than the beginning when you are having to get a number of residents up, washed and dressed in a morning, when you just want to be tucked up in your bed! Also remember that the quality of your sleep is different trying to sleep in the day, compared to sleeping at night time, it will be broken and is not deep, restful, healing sleep.
    There are also symptoms to bear in mind aswell! Alto of my colleagues suffer from irritable legs, which then prevent them from being able to sleep once they do get into bed, others get extremely cold and then there's me who gets extremley nauseous! But each person is different!
    Each person I know who do nights ,do so because it fits in best with their families, they don't need to look for and pay for childcare as their partners are at home to look after the children.
    However, it's not all bad!! we also have a nice little team going, you spend so long working with these people that you do become quite close to them and build good friendships, we all meet outside of work quite regularly now and have lunch, etc. It can also be rewarding as much as it can be demanding!
  • i am rotaed for days and nights and i am dreading my first night, for me i didnt need to sleep before the first night, although we start at 7pm but needed to sleep all day ( a good 7 hours) afterwards if it was more than one in a row, sleeping past lunchtime on the last night ment i was still wide awake come the early hours of the next night, i was always so tired my first day off nights and on a stint of a few weeks of nights felt like pants but you get used to it, its just really hard if you are trying to get back into a day routine every few days

    that said a lot of my colleuges do 4 nights a week and go home get the kids up washed dressed and off to school then go to bed until school finished, this is however harder with a non school age child unless you have childcare in order to sleep

    it doable but really i doubt you would get more childtime as you would need to sleep
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