The Hardest Part of Working Weekends

Yesterday was Friday. As I went throughout my day, I counted the number of times someone said (or posted) “It’s FRIDAY” or “Thank God it’s the weekend!”

35 times. 35 times I saw someone celebrating the fact that it is the weekend. Here’s the thing: it’s not our weekend. In fact, Friday is Monday in our household, as my husband heads off to work on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (I stay home with the kids, but his workweek is also my workweek).

As you can imagine, this schedule presents some challenges.

On Friday evening, while my husband works, I am always at home with the kids, and usually in bed by 9 p.m. On Saturday morning, you can find me + the kids heading out to a playdate or a birthday party, or taking my crew to the park, but it’s never as a family. On Sundays, I’m sitting in church with my three children while my husband works. And on Monday, I’m finally ready to yell “It’s FRIDAY!” Except that it’s not, and if I did that, people would look at me very strangely.

On the flip side, working weekends has its benefits, too. My husband has his days off in the middle of the week, which means I can always schedule doctor appointments around his schedule, and we love taking a family trip to the zoo on a non-crowded Wednesday morning. But every Friday, I get struck again by how hard it can be to have our schedule flip-flopped from the rest of the world.  

For me, the hardest part of weekends being our work days is not that I have to do every social activity as a solo parent, it’s that it feels like no one else is doing it all solo. Sometimes the loneliest part of doing something in this life isn’t doing it by myself, it’s seeing everyone else do it together.

So here’s to the people who are heading into work on this Friday, this Saturday, this Sunday. The hardworking nurses, doctors, first responders, utility workers, dispatchers and store workers (plus many, many more jobs)! Here’s to the Mom who has a hard time making it to that weekend Mom’s Night Out, or can’t make the weekend retreat/conference, or who gets asked if they are a single parent because they are never seen at social activities with their spouse. Here’s to all the parents getting to church on Sunday even when their spouse is at work.

Sometimes it can be lonely when it feels like the rest of the country is breathing a collective Friday-sigh-of-relief, and we are just getting geared up for the work week. You’ve got this. We’ve got this. Even in the midst of this loneliness, it is still possible to be positive and to make the best of the days that we do have – work or no work, cultural “norm” or not culturally normal. And, if like me, you are tempted to think that no one else is working during the weekend, just remember that you are not alone – I’m right there with you, hauling my kids to one more planned social event/activity without my spouse.

We’ve got this.