Okay. I have ready this story and the related ones but I still don't get it. Perhaps I am young and immature but I am really irritated by my husbands' volunteering. The way I see it, he should go on calls when it is convenient - and that's it! For instance, during dinner or when there is nothing else going on, I have absolutely no problem with my husband going on a call. In fact, on many occasions, I've rushed around helping him get his shoes and jacket to help him get out the door faster so that he doesn't miss the truck. But the 2 am calls are for the birds. We are married with 2 small kids. We both work full time 9 to 5 jobs. Besides the fire department, my husband plays in a band on average 2 times a week. Quite honestly, I really feel cheated out of time with him and the family as a result. I'll admit, I do think it's neat and interesting when he comes home with pictures or video from a fire call. He made a really neat video for the annual banquet and I was really proud of him. But seriously, I can't even get him to climb the stairs to get his own socks and underwear but that pager goes off and he's out the door like Flash (the superhero). He commits himself to too much. A few times, he has brought someone from the firehouse back to our house after duty night or training at 10 or 11 at night during the week to show pictures from an earlier call. It's not fair and it's not right. When I say something to him, he thinks I am out of my mind.

And it's some big competition to go to as many calls as you can. Even if it's just an alarm, it's important to respond to that you get a "sign in" or credit for showing up. When that pager goes off in the middle of the night, I wake up and I can't fall back asleep until my husband walks back in the door. Sometimes it's 30 minutes and sometimes it's three hours.

I have tried to reason with myself and even struggled with the idea that I might be a little selfish about it. But what I have concluded it that he is the one being selfish. I think the firehouse is like a hungry beast, it'll take as much as you'll feed it!

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