Working an odd schedule is difficult.

Anyone who has ever worked a non-traditional schedule knows how difficult they can be. Not only on family and friends but on your body as a whole. I work a schedule that is even less then traditional. Three and a half days on and three and a half days off. The thing is my schedule moves around, it is not the same days every week.

You try to do right by your wife and kids, family and friends while trying to do right by yourself. Sleep is probably the hardest thing to come by and when you do it is never good. People don't realize how many noises are made during the day for those who sleep then. As a person who works nights I don't expect people to change or even be sympathetic, I just wish they could understand. People want you to come to their events but don't always realize that 3:00 p.m. for you is the same as 3:00 a.m. for them. People will schedule meetings at 5:15 p.m. trying to accommodate me but don't realize that that would be like me scheduling a meeting for them at 5:15 a.m.

 In the end no one wins, the kids get grouchy dad, mom has to parent alone more then she should have too and I miss sleep and feel bad for being a jerk all the time.