When does your DH come home?

[Elmorton]

So, I''m sitting here completely bored waiting for DH to get home (yes, I recognize that I absolutely sound like a stepford wife).

When do you get home from work vs when does your spouse arrive? What''s your "coming home" routine?

I come home about 2-3 hours before DH, so this is usually my PS and plunk around on the ''net time. Sometimes I find that I''ve gotten so used to the quiet, that I''m a little thrown off when he actually does walk in the door and wants to chatter about what we did all day (remember Carrie and Aiden??). While I always say I''ll start dinner before he gets here, we usually start cooking together almost immediately after he walks in the door.

 

[DiamanteBlu]

He's home all day. We both work out of the house! It is sometimes

. We need a bigger house!

ETA Oops. I just noticed this is the newlywed thread. Disregard my remark.

 

[Haven]

My DH is in and out all day long, as he doesn't have a set schedule because he books his clients himself and often has little breaks throughout the day. He does work late every Monday and Thursday, though, so I'm always home before him those days.

Back when I had a regular schedule, I really relished my alone time before DH came home on Mondays and Thursdays. This was my little routine:
- Come home and walk the pup for 20 to 30 minutes
- When back from the walk, crank up my "favorite songs" playlist on my iPod, change into pj pants and a tank top, tear out my contacts and put on my glasses, and veg in my little reading spot for a while with my book du jour. I'd usually fix a snack of sweet tea and something with cheese, as well.
- Snuggle with the kitties and the dog whenever they jump up in my lap. They're big snugglers.
- Get dinner started. (If I had to go grocery shopping, I'd do it after the walk and before the donning of sleepwear, of course.)
- Clean up the house a bit right before DH comes home.
- Set the little snack tables for dinner in our family room. (Yes, we eat dinner in front of the TV. The man is addicted, okay?)
- Read some more until DH comes home. Then we'd eat together, and after I'd retreat to my small hole to grade papers and do research for the next day's lessons.

I *definitely* relate to Carrie from that episode of SaTC. When I came home from a full day of hearing "Mrs. Haven!" screamed repeatedly by adolescents, the last thing I wanted to do was talk. I didn't even listen to NPR on the way home most nights, I just wanted silence. DH was really good about that, he knew to wait until I broke the silence on the days when he was home already. Good man.

 

[cakeny]

We are in the same industry (we actually met at work 8 years ago) so we have the same hours. In NY, we didn''t work near each other (me, financial district, he was in midtown) but arrived home rough;y around the same time. Now, in SF, we work ONE block away from each other and I run into him on the BART on the way home more often than not. heh. But we hardly ever meet for lunch. I''d have to kill him otherwise.

 

[Lanie]

Haven: I don''t mean to threadjack, but I saw that you quit your job?!? I''m a 7th grade teacher and I know you teach middle school (or around that age) so I wanted to know if you are looking for a whole other change or a new school/new grade??? Also, sorry to hear about your father and mother...that really sucks.

My DH and I leave and get home roughly within an hour of each other. I tutor a lot after school and evenings, so sometimes I''ll get home later. We have a 2 story house, so that makes a lot of difference. He''s a more TV guy than I am, so he''s up there watching TV and I''m down here on the internet. Otherwise I think we would go crazy if we did everything together. It''s nice every once in awhile to have the house to myself, but I don''t like it for very long

 

[kittybean]

El, I am like you--I usually have 2-3 hours to kill before DH gets home. I come home around 5:30 or 6, and DH usually arrives around 8, and he usually leaves the house at the same time or earlier than I do. Oh, the joy of being an associate at a big law firm! I''ll stick to my public interest job, thank you very much.

Anyway, I usually use the time to surf PS (like I am now), read, or watch TV shows or movies DH doesn''t like. I also am always meaning to start dinner, but I don''t usually ''til he gets home, at which point he does most of the cooking.

Haven, you just reminded me that I need a puppy. I have been begging DH for one for about 2 years now, and I think I''m making some progress.

 

[Smurfysmiles]

I leave 7am and he leaves 8am, I get home at 4pm and he gets home around 5pm
We are moving into our new apartment in about a month or so so it will be nice to have the place to myself for a bit when i get home (right now we have a third roommate who works the same hours as I do)

 

[goldenstar]

I leave the house before DH wakes up and three nights a week I get home at, get this, 10:45pm! DH usually gets home between 5:30-6. I am NEVER waiting for him to get home, its always the other way around.

 

[CDNinNYC]

I joke with DH that I''m a widow already. It''s a rare night if he gets home before I go to sleep.

 

[Haven]

Date: 8/27/2009 9:19:16 PM
Author: Lanie
Haven: I don''t mean to threadjack, but I saw that you quit your job?!? I''m a 7th grade teacher and I know you teach middle school (or around that age) so I wanted to know if you are looking for a whole other change or a new school/new grade??? Also, sorry to hear about your father and mother...that really sucks.

Hey Lanie!
I was teaching HS, and I quit at the end of the summer because I just couldn''t ethically work for our new administration anymore.
For the fall semester I''m going to teach part-time at our local community college, my former grad school, and in a weekend gifted program for K-12 kids. I''m also going to see if I can figure out if I want to teach CC full-time, or go back to HS. The pay is a bit worse in CC, but the quality of life is so much better, so we''ll see. Right now I''m thinking CC.
Thanks for asking! How''s your school year going thus far?

Sorry for the thread jack!

 

[JSM]

He comes home way before I do! I almost never wait for him to come home from work, as I work the longer hours. He usually takes the time to call friends and family, crack open a beer, and watch TV. Not, as I ask, to start dinner!

 

[Lilac]

I''m still in school right now, so my schedule varies from semester to semester (and even day to day based on my classes). DH usually leaves around 7 in the morning and gets home around 8 most nights. Last semester I had days I left at 9 in the morning and came home at 3 in the afternoon and days when I left at 9 in the morning and came home at 10 at night. Hopefully this semester I won''t be getting home that late though!

This summer was great because I was home every day by early afternoon and I had time to go online, clean up the apartment a little, get dinner ready all before DH came home. School starts again on Monday and I think it''s going to be a more difficult semester, so we''ll see how it goes.....

 

[DMBFiredancer]

I wish I had some of your schedules.

I have the whole night alone most nights.

My hubby works the opposite schedule that I do during the school year.

I leave at 7am and get home usually around 5pm.
Most nights we get from 5-8pm together to go for a walk, talk and eat dinner before he leaves for work. He gets home after I have already left in the morning.
It wouldnt be so bad if he had weekends off with me, but he doesn''t.

I won''t lie- it downright sucks. But hopefully one day he will be able to bid day shift.
I guess in these times we should really be thankful that we are both working. I try to keep a positive outlook and keep myself busy, but it does suck.

 

[luckystar112]

DH leaves for work around 6am and he usually doesn''t get home until 8 or 9pm. He actually just started doing some side work for this mega rich guy who has like a million expensive cars, and on those nights I don''t see him at all.
He has Sunday''s off, but with football season about to start I''ll be like he''s working SEVEN days a week instead of six!
It''s a huge bummer, and not at all how I wanted our marriage to be. But I''m trying to push through and finish school so we can have more of a balanced family life.

 

[CaliCushion]

DH works from home 2 days a week. The other 3 days, he leaves at 5am and gets home at about 4pm. I don''t get home until about 6:30 most of the time.

 

[Laila619]

My hubby is usually home by 5:30 or 6 every night. Maybe on Fridays he''ll come home by 5. Love Fridays!

 

[bee*]

D works from home so it''s normally him waiting for me, not the other way round. I work Tue-Fri evenings so when I go back to college in two weeks, I''ll be leaving the house at 6.30 am and not arriving home until 9.30 pm. I also work some weekends. I have three years left in college so we''ll be like this for the forseable future.

 

[katomm]

I''m home roughly about 1.5 hours before he is and usually clean up a bit then hop on the computer. If I get bored with that I''ll start dinner but otherwise we enjoy cooking together.

 

[Pandora II]

It''s fairly random - sometimes he''s home at 5.30pm and other times not till midnight.

Working in politics involves a LOT of evening events.

My schedule was always fairly similar so it wasn''t a problem - especially as we often went separately to the same events. Now that I have the bebe I''m at home all the time, so I just check with DH if I need to cook for him or not each day.

Luckily I like being on my own!

 

[geckodani]

Well, for the past 4 and 1/2 years we usually left the house at the same time. I get home around 5. The man... who the hell knew. He''s been in law school for the past several years, so each semester was different. Sometimes he had afternoon classes, sometimes morning and he''d work late to make up for it, sometimes nights, sometimes weekends 2 hours away where I wouldn''t see him all weekend etc.

Now. OMG. It''s insane. I get home at 5 - and he''s home 30 minutes later. No class. No homework. We don''t know what to do with ourselves, LOL!!!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

One of us has to take the 5:45pm train for the pooches, and it''s usually me. If I need to be in the office, D works from home in the evenigns. If I take the early train, I usually pick him up at 8 or 10:30 (depending on the train he takes).

On very rare days, we both make the 5:45pm train. Those are great days!

 

[sunnyd]

Depends on the day for us! I''m always home by 4-4:30, but he finishes when he has no more jobs, so he could be home hours before me, or hours after. In the summer, he''s usually home before, around 2-4. In the winter, could be 6-7. Good for OT though!

 

[vespergirl]

My DH is gone every day from around 6 am to 7 pm. It used to be fine when I was still working (I was out from 8 - 6) but now that I''m a SAHM, it''s a total drag. He leaves before DS & I get up in the morning, and he usually only spends about an hour with DS when he gets home from work. However, he does take over the child care when he gets home (he gives DS his bath & gets him ready for bed) but it''s still tough to be alone with a 2 and a half year old all day. Can''t wait until DS starts preschool 2 days a week in a couple of weeks!

My DH works really long hours, but it''s OK because his company rewards him very well - so well that I don''t have to work anymore, unless I want to. Honestly, getting home at 7 isn''t the end of the world, either - I prefer that he''s gone in the morning while we''re still asleep than gone at night ...

 

[iheartscience]

My husband leaves for work earlier than me and usually gets home a bit earlier, too. He usually gets home around 4 and I get home around 5ish.

We both usually do our own thing for an hour or two after we get home and then we hang out, eat, go to soccer, whatever.

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Soon-to-be DH works 9-9 most days, but once every-other-week works 9-6. BUT- he only has 40 hour weeks, so he doesn''t work as many days as some.

Unless I''m *really* hittin'' the books, I''m almost always home before him. I like the quiet time, actually. I only wish he was home earlier some days so that we didn''t have to fit all our talking and catching up into the evening hours... it usually means a later bedtime than I''d like

 

[gwendolyn]

Depends. During the school year, my hours are pretty set (usually leave before 8am, home around 4pm, 5pm or a bit later on days when we have meetings after school), Mon-Fri. J, however, works varying shifts seven days a week. So sometimes he works Mon-Fri, 7am-3pm and we''re basically on the same schedule, and other times he works from 3pm-10pm and weekends too, which is always a bit of a bummer. I enjoy the time alone (and especially not having to cook--can just have cereal or a salad for dinner!) but when it''s too often, it starts to wear on us both.

 

[Rhea]

We both vary when we get home.

He can be home any time between 6-9pm, most often at 6pm. I''m usually home between 5:30-8:30pm, most often around 7pm. When he has school I start cooking at about 8, eating by 9. If he doesn''t have school work to do then we cook together when I get home or he''s already started on it when I get home with dinner at 8pm. I get bored on his school work nights so I often go out with friends and will be out until midnight.

DH lives a 10 minute drive from his work. I live 90 minutes by public transport so strikes or cancelled trains can also cause me to be home much later than my normal time.

 

[Patchee]

I never thought of the time before DH gets home as "time to kill" waiting for him to arrive. I do my own thing, he the same. Any given day he is home a couple hours after me or vice versa. I clean when he is not home, He watches football when I am not home yet !!

 

[PilsnPinkysMom]

Date: 8/31/2009 1:59:01 PM
Author: Patchee
I never thought of the time before DH gets home as ''time to kill'' waiting for him to arrive. I do my own thing, he the same. Any given day he is home a couple hours after me or vice versa. I clean when he is not home, He watches football when I am not home yet !!

Hehehe, that last sentence sounds a WHOLE lot like my home life. Glad I''m not the only one!

 

[jjdav]

DH works from home or he is traveling for work, so either I come home to him or there''s just me

. When he is not at home, I do some house work, surf the net and watch TV, but not the shows we both love so we can watch them together.

I usually leave home at about 8 and comes home around 7, so usually we call or text each other to see what we want to do for dinner. DH will either get things started or he will take my take out order

I do get a little jealous on the days when he rolls out of bed at 8 and hops onto his computer in his PJs, but I also feel bad when he has to be up at 4:30am to catch an early flight