After a good night’s sleep, or in my case less than stellar sleep, I always hear the same thing from any one of my girls, generally all 3 by the time they all see me. Yep, you could set a clock by it.

“What’s for dinner?”  (I should clarify I am a shift worker, sleeping during the day while my kids are in school, or homeschooling, getting up as everyone is getting home for the day). So as I am rubbing sleep out of my eyes, wishing my 20-second Keurig coffee pot could brew even faster, they want to know what’s for dinner. Not “How’d you sleep?” or “I love you”.

So as I am waking up, and getting ready for my day, knowing I couldn’t eat a bite of anything I am cooking them, they want to know what is for dinner, and how fast can I get it cooked? We have slowly adjusted to this type of schedule, but I do wish I could eat the dinner I make for my family with them. Instead, I am eating a yogurt and piece of fruit, or a bowl of Honey-Nut Cheerios (YUM!) while they are eating tacos, or spaghetti, or any other meal I would love to share with them.

The problem gets worse as even though I am eating my dinner at 2am in the morning, my body knows it is 2am, and that I really shouldn’t be eating a meal at that time of day. So I tend to eat a lot of soups, or anything else that doesn’t bother my “it’s-2am-you-should-be-sleeping” stomach.

I tried to have a normal schedule on the weekends I don’t work, my body doesn’t appreciate that either. I can only hope that this situation I volunteered myself into is not going to be a long-term situation, and I can eventually feel like a normal person who has a normal schedule and normal eating habits.

Are you a shift worker? If so, how do you adjust to it?