Is Rig Life Really Worth It?

Let me tell you how it is for us.
We really have grown to love rig life, but not that long ago we really felt like we had had enough. My husband was on the road 5 to 6 weeks at a time and as soon as we thought that we just couldn't go another day apart he would be shipped home to sit for at least a month at a time. We were really being hit hard by the whole "feast or famimine" lifestyle that is part of the rigs. With all the finacial ups and downs it was wearing hard on our marriage and we were really beginning to wonder if getting off the rigs might be the answer to our problems.

So the opportunity came up for my husband to go give pipeline a try and we decided to take it. At first it sounded awesome. He would finally be close enough to home to be able to drive home after work every night and the pay sounded like it would be good enough to pay the bills. We were so excited about him coming home at night and the possiblity of a little stability was just to good to turn down.

So he quit his rig life and turned to the pipeline. Well, let me tell you it was not nearly as great as we thought it would be. Turns out when you have spent your whole relationship living a rig lifestyle it is really hard to change. We had hoped with him being home every night that he would be able to participate more with putting kids to bed, helping out with homework and just generally hanging out with me in the evenings. Not only are me and my husband used to rig life but the kids have grown up with him gone alot so they were used to me doing everything for them.

Don't get me wrong all the kids were excited to see "daddy" come through the door each night, they loved eating supper with him and having a chance to tell him all about there day, they even enjoyed him tucking them in and saying good night every night....But I still had to be right behind him doing everything that he had already done as they just would not settle down until "mommy" did it.

He would try and help with bath time and the little ones were just not happy about the way he did things. Guess it is hard for children to deal with change too. I was still happy to have my husband there but we also found it was a lot of strain. He was understandably tired after working 10 to 12 hours during the day and just did not feel like staying up to hang out at night. I can't say I really blame him.

To top it all off when he quit the rigs to go pipeline his pay was literally cut in half. This put an even bigger strain on our financial situation. We were getting ourselves in to a pretty bad situation. We considered all the options we had and finally decided that rig life was just in our blood and we were not ready to change just yet.

So it is back to the rigs and our beloved rig life. It may be lonely at times and there are definelty hardships but it seems that is just part of life and no matter what path you take in life you will always find hard times.

Hey life happens and all in all I am glad we took the chance to try and create a different lifestyle. Guess it just wasn't for us.

Check out Rig Life: How To Keep The Home Fires Burning. It has some great tips on keeping your relationship alive when you are working away.

An Introduction

Let me first start off by introducing myself. I am the wife of a rig hand. Well not just any rig hand, he is of course a very special and exceptionally smart rig hand. He would have to be to make such an awesome choice for his wife...LOL.

Anyway, we have been living the "oil life" for..well it feels like forever, but in all reality we did go to high school before my husband started his life on an oil rig. So I guess that would mean we have lived an "oil life" for about 11 years now.

Why did we choose rig life? We made some mistakes in our teen years and by time I was 17 we had already had 2 kids...So where else could he make enough to support a very fast growing family but in the oilfield. Since we grew up in a oil rich community it seemed at the time the best option. Now 11 years and 2 more babies later we sometimes wonder if it was the right choice.

11 years later, though it is really to late to make to much of a change. In that 11 years he has worked his way up to driller/relief toolpush on drilling rigs. The only downfall is gone far too much. The up side of rig life for me is since I concieved our 3rd child 6 years ago, I have been a stay at home mom and had the privledge of watching my children grow up. I got say, I really do love my husband for making staying at home a reality for me.

I always wanted to be a stay at home mom and he has busted his butt to make that happen for me and our family. I thank him very much for that!!

So there is a run down of who I, or I guess who we are. We are an average family living the "oil life" With 4 healthy lively kids and a driller for a husband...This is my life and most of the time I love it. You will find over the course of time that there are days I love rig life and there are days that I absolutely hate rig life. I am not here to recommend or discourage oil life I am just here to give my view as I see it.

Please feel free to comment and let me know how you feel about rig life! I am happy to hear from all of you.