Anyone with DH that are shift workers?

[jag01]

DH just went back to working 6 pm -6 am shift. We set him up in the basement where it's a bit quieter, but it's still not sound proof. I'm finding it stressful keeping the kids quiet enough while he sleeps. I feel like I'm always at them to be quiet. I swear DD is the heaviest footed child I've ever met. I try keeping them outside as much as possible and try to plan outings as much as I can, but there is times where we still have to be in the house. 
If your DH is a shift worker, what are somethings that you do to help keep the kids quietly entertained while also keeping your sanity.   

[bakerlady89]

My DH does shifts, rotating every month. I just try to keep DD (18 months) at the other end of the house as much as possible. He has music turned on in the bedroom to help drown out the noise. When it's nice we play outside. There is only so much you can do, if the noise is too much for your DH, maybe get some ear plugs or something for him?

[NandaB]

Yea. I agree with Kimbus. Its stressful for you, and not really fair for your kids for you to be shushing them all day. Get out when you can, and obviously don't have a scream-off or a dance party over his head but maybe he needs ear plugs or a white noise machine.

My husband worked overnight but it was when G was a tiny baby and he sleeps like the dead anyway. Which is good because our house is pretty small

[momin2013]

No shiftwokers after here, but I'd also recommend getting a good white noise/sound machine. Even a fan should work to muffle the sound a bit.

[Kcthepouchh8r]

I would reverse and set the kids up in an basement play room. Dh does that when I sleep in on Sunday am (and I do it for him on Saturdays) and we are never woken up by kids.

[quesyrah]

Mar 9, 2015 11:02:07 GMT -5 @kimbus22 said:

Mar 9, 2015 10:58:19 GMT -5 NandaB said:

Yea. I agree with Kimbus. Its stressful for you, and not really fair for your kids for you to be shushing them all day. Get out when you can, and obviously don't have a scream-off or a dance party over his head but maybe he needs ear plugs or a white noise machine.

My husband worked overnight but it was when G was a tiny baby and he sleeps like the dead anyway. Which is good because our house is pretty small

This is the thing.  He's the adult and when you agree to work those hours when you have small kids, you're agreeing to crap sleep until the kids are older.  You just are.  You can't expect them to be quiet all day.

DH will keep them from screaming outside my bedroom door when I'm napping but we try to keep the shushing down to when the baby is napping so Joey doesn't feel like he's just being told to quiet down all day.  If I wake up because he's running around underneath my room laughing his head off, oh well.  I knew that going into it.  Most days I don't sleep more than 3, maybe 4 hours at a strech.  But I'll do that right when I get home and then later in the day when the kids are winding down I'll go sleep another couple of hours before work.

It's just not sustainable to function on 3-4 hours of sleep though. Especially driving when you're that tired which supposedly is worse than driving while intoxicated. 

When DH is on nights, the kids and I are out the door by 8 am. We stay out as long as we possibly can to let him sleep. Before we leave the house they get a movie or other quiet activity. He also either puts in earplugs or turns on the white noise when he goes to bed which helps a lot. And after I get up I put a rolled blanket against the bottom of our door which really cuts down on sound. We do that to the kids too after they go to bed so we don't wake them. 

[lala]

I tend to agree w/ Kimbus from my childhood experience. My dad did night work when we were little until I was in middle school I think. We lived in a rancher, so no basement or upstairs to escape, too. It was obviously better when some of us were in school but mostly it was up to him to make it work. He had a sound machine & the TV on, ringer off on the phone. We obviously had to be quiet if we were anywhere near his room. And there were days he didn't get enough sleep & was cranky towards us.

It would have been exhausting & impossible for my mom to get all of us out of the house for 6 hours every single day. Being a SAHM was very different for her than it is for me or most of us. There weren't classes, story times, etc. We didn't have memberships to everything. We did stuff and we did go out but not quite the same. We did play outside a lot - we had 7 acres and no worry of the street or anything.

There's no way I could get all of us out by 8 to let DH sleep. What would we even do? Target? Walmart? In warmer weather we could be outside, of course. But not now.

ETA: I shouldn't talk, who knows what we'd do if we had to do it. It's highly unlikely DH will ever have to work anything but a day shift w/ the kind of job he has, but you never know. 

[minerswife17]

DH changes shifts every 4 weeks, all 3 shifts. Midnight shift is obviously the only one were he is sleeping through the day. DH is a hard sleeper. I swear I could like firecrackers in his nose and he wouldn't budge. It's kinda nice that I don't have to worry about keeping DD quiet. I'm an insanely light sleeper and if I needed to nap through the day (which never happens anymore) I used earplugs.

[notreallyirish]

DH works 24 hour shifts 1 to 3 times a week and during that time is often at home taking call and during/afterwards is trying to catch up on sleep. When Ds1 was a baby DH worked nights or days in 4 week rotations. I've never made any particular effort to be quiet. We don't hang out right outside the bedroom but other than that it's up to him to make his sleeping environment suitable. If he has a problem he can let me know, but he never has. He could sleep at the hospital if he wanted but has always preferred to be at home, so obviously it's not a terrible set up for him.