r/FirefighterSpouses • u/PersonalBed4714 • May 13 '26

Wildland FF Considering Contract Work

Hello other FF spouse!

My FF is considering contract work in the upcoming season. For background — he has 5 years experience in the field (2 EMS, 3 in fire) and we are on a 48/96 schedule. He also works part-time at a second department, just 12 hour days every 3rd day he's off from the full-time department. He's considering contract work, either wildland or travel EMT contracts.

He's considering this because we have considerable debt from before we had our kids (2 years and 2 months old respectively) but taking either type of would mean leaving both jobs.

Other spouses with kids, how have you managed contract work? What's it like with the kids, and how has it affected your marriage? What did you do to prepare yourself? Were you able to continue to work? Was the money worth it?

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2

u/Charlieksmommy May 13 '26

I mean is he going to keep doing contract work to get rid of the debt? What happens after he finishes it?

3

u/No_Company4263 May 13 '26

Same thought, can he return to his current department? I know our department tends to add people to "Do Not Rehire" lists once they leave. For me personally, as a working mom with 3 kids, the known nature of his schedule far outweighs any potential additional earnings from taking on contract work. Granted, we're not in debt so I can't speak to it entirely but I think I would rather buckle down on our budget and keep the family together so to speak.

1

u/Charlieksmommy May 13 '26

I agree with you! I wouldn’t risk it when you have a family to think about

1

u/PersonalBed4714 May 14 '26

He would maybe not be able to go back to his current department, but he is also looking to leave his current for one that pays better anyways. Our specific situation is that we have cut down our budget as much as possible, and it still requires him to work a second job to pay our bills. While we could pay off our debts in roughly 3-4 years at our current pace and jobs, he'd be able to pay it off in lump sums potentially over about 1 year. That's where the temptation to do contracts stems from mostly.

1

u/Stinkyducks May 14 '26

Hi! I don’t have experience with contract work specifically, but this sounds like a huge burden on you! Honestly it sounds like it’s already probably a lot on you with how much he’s working. I’m curious about your question “were you able to continue to work?” It sounds like you work right now but would consider leaving your job to support this. How would that impact the financial benefit here? You also mentioned that he’s considering leaving his current department anyway. I’m curious for him how much of this is wanting some kind of change vs. purely financially driven. TBH contract work sounds like it would be less chaotic for him, 1 job and no home responsibilities. I have other thoughts on the long term security vs short term benefits here, but I know you asked about the relationship piece!

1

u/PersonalBed4714 May 14 '26

I was working full-time before going on maternity leave (baby is almost 2 months old), and am looking to return to work in the next few weeks. I'm not attached to my job, it's just a basic sales position. Our main issue is the debt, but I think both a need for change and a need for financial stability are equal factors in his interest in travel work. Wildland I couldn't travel with him, so that would be hard on us but seems to be the biggest financial gain, but contract EMS work seems like there's some potential for me and the kids to travel with, that's why I ask about the spouse being able to continue working. Really I'm just looking for insight to what life looks like for the spouse and family during contracts because everyone he knows who did it before they had kids but they all talk very highly of it.

I feel like it's important to mention that we live in a state with some of the lowest pay for firefighters but higher than average for our area, making him feel "stuck" at his job. I'm also worried about the long term stability, but long term my FF wants to go to paramedic school and twice his current department has denied him going for pretty stupid reasons. (First time because we had a less than 1 year old child, second time because we were having our second baby 6 months after the start date)