Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1exp 11/4/83; site iwpba.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!we13!ihnp4!iwpba!amigo From: amigo@iwpba.UUCP (amigo) Newsgroups: net.kids Subject: Re: Handling A Child & Two Working Parents??? Message-ID: <141@iwpba.UUCP> Date: Wed, 9-May-84 11:25:17 EDT Article-I.D.: iwpba.141 Posted: Wed May 9 11:25:17 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 10-May-84 00:17:54 EDT References: <952@bmcg.UUCP>, <1077@ihuxl.UUCP> <2251@hplabsb.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il Lines: 46 Both my wife and I work, and we have three children (all boys, aged 3, 6 & 8). My wife works at a shelter for abused women, and she has some very funny hours (funny odd, not funny ha-ha): Mon 8am to 4pm Tues 4pm to midnight Wed OFF Thurs 4pm to midnight (except that once a month it goes to 8am Friday) Fri Alternate weeks OFF or midnight to 8am Saturday Saturday & Sunday OFF on alternate weeks, the weekends she does work are either 8am to 4pm or 4pm to 8am. She also works more hours quite often (right now, one of her co-workers is in the hospital for gall-bladder surgery, and her shifts have to be covered). I work 8 to 5 as a programmer. The way we work it is that I do most of the cooking (my mother & father thought that cooking is one of those things that everyone should know; anyway, I enjoy it, as anyone who has ever seen my once slim figure can attest), we split the cleaning, she does the laundry (my wife works under the assumption that I would wash everything in hot water, both whites and coloured clothes together--do something just once, and you have a reputation for life, anyway, I didn't mind the blue underwear). We set aside at least 90 minutes a day for the children. This may not be from both of us together, but they do get an hour and a half of our (hopefully) uninterrupted time each working day, usually just after supper, and more on the weekends. We also try to set aside at least half an hour for ourselves, after the children go to bed. I usually watch less than 10 hours of TV each week (mainly Hill Street Blues, St. Elsewhere, Monty Python, 60 Minutes, Masterpiece Theatre, and the odd movie) and my wife watches less (she likes Dr. Who, which comes on at an ungodly hour Sunday nights, and she is usually too tired to stay up, also, it comes on after Monty Python, which she hates). It probably would not work for many people--after all, there are times when I do not really see Suzanne for a couple of days at a stretch, but it seems to work for us. John Hobson AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL ihnp4!iwpba!amigo (NOTE TEMPORARY MACHINE)