Now, as I start I want to thank my wife for the topic. When I asked yesterday I received two great topics and I wanted to get to this one now and I will be writing on the second topic early next week. When she told me the topic all she said was balance, and I must say that it flew around my head a few minutes before it landed (needed a little more info too). Then she mentioned the need for families in the emergency services field to come up with a way to balance their work life, and home life. Now, I am certainly not the first person to say this, nor is emergency services the only profession that must do this, but it is imperative for our personnel to make this distinction and to work on this balance to bring the most satisfaction from the profession, and from the family.
Now, if you know me, you know that I tend to be a workaholic (I hate that term, but it fits). I have a bad habit for having too many projects going, and spending to much time doing it and I have missed large blocks of time. When I still in the field I would work extra shifts, take extra positions on ambulances, and in the classroom, I would serve on additional committees and advisory board, and basically anything I could do to immerse myself in the profession. I have served multiple fire departments at the same time, working as a volunteer with one and paid at another and it ultimately took up a lot of my time. During the early part of my career, It was my wife and I and we were ok with the way things were going at the time. I was still in retail management and I was working as a volunteer with a combination department. The complexities of time management weren't that tremendous becuase I was doing a lot of my FD work while my wife was at her position.
Then came the change...now, I said that by using a singular term when it truly was changes. "When it rains it pours right." When I was starting starting my career as a firefighter with a large municipal fire department we were in the process of expanding our family and enjoying the life of a newborn in our house. Little did we know how much a career change could put on the family with just my wife and I, let alone with the addition of a little one. At that point it still wasn't that bad. I was working with the large municipal department and still doing some work with the combination department when we were together so my wife could watch our child, and she was still working...so time become a little more complex, but managable. Then comes more. We added schools (for us both) more jobs, higher money needs (kids eat A LOT), additional jobs, additional responsibilies, then another child and guess what was happening. Well, we didn't plan for all of that and we lost appointments, failed to find babysitters for our kids and things just hurt a little. So here comes the balance beam.
When our families are in the emergency services field (and it is truly our families in the profession) we must find a balance. One of the best things my wife and I started doing was sitting down weekly to discuss our schedule. Planning time together can help set up the week for success by allowing you first to be together, and second to ensure you don't miss any appointments and that all babysitters are available. Additionally, that coordinated schedule will give you an opportunity to ensure you also have some family time built in.
Our profession is one of constant demand and stress. While our personnel are resilient, and have adapted many ways to handling the distress associated with our jobs, it is good to help build ways to cope with that stress through eustress (good stress). A great balance between family and work can be everything that a struggling emergency service employee needs.
Take Care and Stay Safe
Combomedic - David Blevins
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