Decisions decisions

This post isn’t funny, not that I am generally funny but just a forewarning – I am sounding out my thoughts thinking putting it on paper might help me make a decision.

Going to work is handy (as handy as going to work can be without a lottery win) at the moment as Hubby and I work in the same direction from home – I drop Hubby off on the way to my office so the only issue I have is convincing him that he has to work the additional ½ hour it takes me to travel to and from my office from his.

The Government are rationalising their estate and closing a site in Blackpool, naturally this is the one that I work at.  In their position I would do the same thing, it is the oldest and therefore most expensive to maintain and the best site to sell in terms of real estate.  However, this causes issues because the site I am being moved to is in the opposite direction from home.

As much as I love Hubby, who refuses to learn to drive on account of him ‘being too old’ now (how old does that make me seen as I am older than he), I have refused (and not that he expected it) to drive in one direction to drop him off, turn around and drive past our house and beyond to drive to the new office twice a day.

Luckily some are being financially compensated for the forced move of offices as their daily travelling distance will increase.  Unfortunately we are not one of them as my new office is nearer than the current one and our household increase in expenditure cannot be taken into account, only mine.

Despite the obvious increase in travelling cost it drastically increases Hubby’s travel time as he will have to catch 2 buses to work (and back) which will add 2 hours to his day or use a bike which will add an hour to his day.  It will be amusing to watch him on a bike, though not as amusing as watching him from behind while he attempted hula hooping on the Wii Fit……

All of this leaves me with a decision to make.

I have a tendancy to work longer hours when I do not have Hubby insisting it is time to go home and without the regiment of picking him up that tendancy will increase.  My manager is already not too impressed with the additional leave I accumulate as a result of increased work hours as it leaves her work uncovered at times (strange that, seen as mine is always uncovered when I am on leave and she is part-time which exacerbates the situation).

For a long time I have hankered after working 4 days a week instead of 5.  We cannot afford the drop in salary, especially with increased travel costs but as Hubby will be out of the house for longer I could do 5 days over 4 – essentially fitting 37 hours into 4 days instead of 5.  This should be easy for me to do as I have a tendancy to work longer days anyway and will help in the unwanted accumulation of work hours.  I would still be out of the office the same amount as Hubby as a result of the increased travelling time he will incur.

I also hanker after being more productive at home as a wife and mother – and I am almost sure (because my memory is sieve like and useful on most days) that I have twittered about this previously.  The opportunity to be at home earlier than Hubby gives me the time to clean daily and cook tea for the family to eat together and still have time in the evenings to spend with Hubby and Beautiful B.

As you can see, these options are a direct contradiction of each other – longer days for 4 days of the week means I won’t be home until Hubby is home.

Hubby thinks that doing 5 days over 4 will put me under pressure at home and he is saying this purely because he knows that I get stressed when I cannot get the cleaning done that I want and potentially for 4 days of the week I am going to have to make a decision between cleaning and spending time with the family.

That option is obvious – family should come first which they would but it also means that I will begin to fidget, twitter and all round get stressed because I find it difficult to relax (in fact, impossible) if there is cleaning to be done – I blame my dad and the only other person that understands this is my longest friend and one of my best friends, Angel because she is worse than me.

So I’m at a crossroads and have no idea which way to go.  Do I do 5 days over 4 and blitz the house one day a week so I still have the weekends for the family or do I become the housewife that I hanker to become……

Decisions decisions