What keeps me awake at night? The book I’m reading, my toddler looking for boobies at midnight and twice or thrice more after midnight. But mostly, it’s because November is fast approaching and it means I’m going back to work.
I was able to book off my remaining work days this November so technically, my “real” schedule starts on December. However, I want to book an orientation early this November so I could slowly get back to work routine by picking up shifts before the “real” comeback. That is one of the things that keeps me up at night.
The biggest thing that keeps me awake is: child care.
My husband and I are health care workers, which means we are shift workers. Last year, when I checked our schedules, I thought our schedules aren’t bad and we won’t have to really worry about it as our shifts don’t overlap. However, when I checked it recently, I found out that it wasn’t the case. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Friday our shifts overlap. Either we’re both working days or one of us is coming off from a night shift and no one will be able to look after our little one on those days. Unfortunately, both day cares in town aren’t accepting yet because they don’t have a spot. I’m hoping that the private daycare I’ve applied to (for waitlist) will open on January and that our LO will be one of the kids that gets accepted.
Fortunately, our December schedule is not bad. I believe there’s only 2 or 3 days that we need to find cover for. And fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the weekend—unfortunately, no one in our family (besides my mom) is able to look after LO on the weekdays. My mom is a shift worker too, but she’s also full time—her weekdays are also full 🥲
So, these are the things that keeps me up at night. I am starting to feel overwhelmed and lowkey stressing out at our work schedules. Man, why is it so hard to find child care. Ugh, to be a working mom, am I right? I’m not even back working and I am already stressed out.
What keeps you up at night?
