Now that Mason’s started kindergarten, Susan and I have had to, once again, split up our schedules. For the past nine months, all four of us have gone to work in the same car (our daycare is right next to our building). Now, one of us has had to take the late shift at work so that we can take Mason to school at 8am; the other has to go to work early, so that we can leave work early and pick him up when school lets out. Our other two choices were putting Mason in an after school program or putting him in daycare for two hours a day. Frankly, driving separately is (by far) the cheapest solution — and so it begins.

I ended up with the early shift. There are many positives to the early shift. Whoever works the early shift doesn’t have to take a kid to daycare or school — that makes things a bit simpler. Work is pretty slow early in the morning too, so that’s another plus. Another thing I’ve already begun to enjoy is leaving work at 3pm. After picking up Mason I’ve been getting home around 3:45 or so. That gives the two of us about two hours to do whatever we want to do (play videogames, read, drive the golf kart, etc.) before the girls get home.

The only downside I’ve found so far is waking up at 5am so I can get to work by 6am. I haven’t used an alarm clock in almost a year. With two kids who like to wake up and come into our room, it’s been impossible to oversleep. On the late shift, Susan and I were reporting to work at 8:45am. Every day felt like we were sleeping in. Those days, at least for me, are over. For now, instead of waking up to the sun’s rays peeking in through the window blinds or the quiet babbling of stirring children, I am now waking to the jarring BUZZ of an alarm clock.

This earlier shift will require some obvious changes (no more watching movies until midnight every night), but the shift in free time appears to be worth the schedule change.