Our evening starts with a simple sound. A turn of the key and click of the door latch. He’s home. Quickly followed by
children screeching and the barking K9 Officer. All is right in the world again. He takes off his uniform and gun and changes for dinner. The kids fill him in with the details of the day. Charlotte emphasizes everything we did, and Thompson makes sure to remind him that there are indeed still elephants at the zoo. A whirl of activity :: baths, stories, and bed.
I look over at him during our nightly Netflix binge. Although I wear the weariness of being with the kids all day, he wears the weariness of patrolling the streets, a different kind of tired. He’ll wind down eventually from his day, and sometimes share cases with me. Then, we’ll settle into bed and get ready to do it again the next day.
This is our reality. We’re a blue family, and I’m a LEO {Law Enforcement Officer} wife. With National Thank a Police Officer Day on September 15, I thought I’d share what life is like for our family, and how my husband’s career to protect and serve not only fills us with pride, but also makes the present moment that much more precious.
When he walks out the door
Nothing is guaranteed in life. Any time someone walks out the door in the morning, there’s no guarantee that they’ll walk back through that same door in the evening. Few careers, however, dictate that the person walking out their front door in the morning will knowingly face dangers in their day that could challenge their chances of returning.
Every day, we live that reality, but rarely do we dwell on it. It’s impossible to weigh that enormity of emotion and carry it throughout the day. Instead, we make sure to make those good-bye kisses and hugs special. We make an effort never to leave on bad terms, and always say how much we love each other. At 2 and 4, my kids are too young to understand the risks Daddy takes to keep others safe. I know someday they will, and I pray that their little hearts are never over-burdened with worry.
Birthday parties, activities, and holidays
RSVPing for 3, the kids and me, is pretty much our normal. We’ve lived through the realities of evening shift, night shift, and day shift. Our family weekends have rarely fallen on the traditional Saturday, Sunday, reality as most of the rest of the world. Oh, and holidays, those are only days off if they fall on Daddy’s weekends.
If Daddy needs to sleep from a late shift or night shift, or if he’s at work on a Saturday, the kids and I still make sure to go to events we’re invited to. Sometimes it means that our Christmas Eve traditions wait until Daddy comes home at 10:00 pm after processing his paperwork. Once it meant that Thanksgiving dinner was at 9:00 am, and the rest of the day was spent watching the parade, making crafts, or going on walks, because Daddy had to go to work.
Changes in Plans
The shift work schedules themselves can be dizzying. With a police officer’s schedule, however, not only does our family hang on tight as shift schedules change, but also as other events come up. Sometimes, it’s a call that was taken at the end of his shift which causes two to three extra hours of paperwork. Other times, he has to cover for a short-manned shift or he switches to a training schedule and then back to his normal schedule during the week.
Although we do our best to document these changes on the calendar, often they come up too quickly, and we just have to be flexible. Now, being flexible without kids wasn’t a big deal. Being that flexible with kids can be a major adjustment. One week I might be waking everyone up and putting everyone to sleep, meaning Daddy doesn’t get to see the little ones hardly at all. Another week, we might see each other in the morning for a couple hours, but then never be asleep at the same time. Luckily my husband can sleep through a freight train, otherwise that year on nights would have been a COMPLETE disaster.
Getting a Call
The worst part of being a LEO wife by far is getting that call on shift. The pause after those two words “something happened” never felt so long. When this first happened, I was pregnant with our second child. I got a call from two of his fellow officers.
Something happened.
I quickly made arrangements for someone to watch our first and rushed to the hospital. There had been a car accident. He had been extremely lucky, and only suffered a concussion. Despite that, nothing can erase the picture of seeing him strapped to a backboard as the paramedics wheeled him in. Sitting in the ER, holding his hand while our child kicked inside me, and our other slept at home, I was struck again by the enormity of risk his job holds.
On one occasion, it was cuts and bruises from apprehending a suspect. Once, it was a suspected broken finger. The list goes on.
So Why Does he Do it…
If I would ask him this question today, I would already know the answer. He has been called. He feels it’s his life’s mission to protect and serve others. Ever since we’ve had our first child, he has been even more adamant at doing his job. He feels that his work is making the world a safer place for our children and for everyone.
Whether it’s stopping a DUI suspect, entering a house in the pitch black of night for a high-water rescue, or helping a child find his parents again, police officers everywhere are leaving their families each morning, evening, or night, without a guarantee of returning to keep us safe.
