I have learned through the years, because of my seniority status in my department, that if you can submit your time off requests far in advanced for preplanned events, holidays, or even special days, such as birthday’s, that you have a far better chance of getting them off. For our new Cops that join, they have less of a chance, but still recommend the advanced requests, considering you never know what days will be available.
For the families that have to watch as their husbands or wives go off to fight crime, and are forced to work all those special occasions, it is hard. But don’t let that affect your relationship, instead find new methods of celebrating. One way me and my wife substitute things, is through email, or using websites such as Facebook, or Myspace, to record such events, share photos, and document the day. I know it’s not the same, but you still can share and be some what apart of the day, even if you can’t be present. Even text messaging helps, my wife loves to share what the kids are doing, while I work. I may not necessarily be able to respond back to every message, but I get to read and see that things are going well.
Being in law enforcement is rough, not only on the person working in it, but the family that is attached to the Cop working the beat. There is no complete right or wrong answer to fixing some of these problems, but the answer I have is to be creative, communicated always, take advantage of the technology that is available to share special moments, and always share your feeling before your spouse walks out that door to go to work. Try to be as positive as you can, and try to hold back the negativity that you may be feeling, when he/she has to work that special occasion.
I myself have had my share of working Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Birthday’s, National Holiday’s, State Holiday’s, Valentine’s Day, New Year’s, and much more. I agree it sucks, but it’s the job, and as a Cop it’s our job to protect life and property, service the public, and keep order when there is chaos.
If you have any comments or suggestions on how to make these rough times better, I would love to hear from you. You can also go to Http://mrdeputysworld.blogspot.com and post comments there.
1 comments:
Just connected here from your post on Thefamilybehindhisbadge.com. It was odd because I just commented on another blog where the family member shares that just this thing is a bit difficult to take. I have to admit, that when DH first took on the job, it took some time to understand that days off weren't days off like other jobs...and a simple request for a day wasn't necessarily simple. We caught on that 2nd year to ask for any days off on Jan 1. So did a lot of the other wives, and soon they nixed anyone with -X years from submitting time off so those with more years in had first pick. I never really minded the holidays and birthdays or missed anniversaries. I think our hardest was missing our children's highschool graduation, serious surgeries and being there for one another when we suffered a death in the family.
I've enough years with this life, though, that we've adjusted very well and realize that this is doable...like most things, time just gives us a different perspective and different survival skills.
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