Admittedly, husbands can be annoying. They often leave the toilet seat up and have been known to leave wet towels just laying around, but even with those problems I can’t imagine him not being around. They are great for catching spiders, for reaching really high things and just for a nice cuddle at the end of the day.

So what happens when you only see your husband for two weeks at the end of every two months?

Manda and her husband Scott

Here, Amanda tells us what it is like having a fly-in-fly-out husband.

Family:

Amanda Reeks, 29 has been with Scott on and off for about 16 years and were married 5 ½ years ago. They are both born and bred locals and have four children, Charlotte 10, Lachlan, 7, Hunter, 4, Oliver 3 weeks.

Fly-in-fly-out occupation:

Scott is a Quad Road Train Driver (4 trailers) out of the mines and back to the ports at Port Hedland.

Location:

Pilbara, Western Australia.

How often is he away?

Scott spends eight (8) weeks at work then has two (2) weeks home.

What is the hardest part of having your husband work away?

Not having him to fix things when they break and heavy lifting. I most definitely miss his muscles the most! Not being home for birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas is tough, but we make up for that by creating our own special days.

Why did you choose as a family for him to work away? Why not find work closer to home?

A new adventure! Scott is a born truckie, and it is a natural progression to go from the small Pantechs and to dream big. Driving road trains has always been his dream and unfortunately there are no opportunities to drive quads in the Central West. The opportunity presented itself, we spent many hours weighing up the pros and cons, and the pros won. We are an extremely goal focused family and life is too short not to live out your dreams.

How long has Scott been flying-in-flying-out?

He is currently on his second swing, so we are still newbies really

What would you like people to know?

A lot of people have asked me, how do you live without him? Well truth is we don’t. Granted he is on the other side of Australia, but with Skype, phone calls and the like, we see him and talk to him everyday. Without Skype I think it would be a little harder on the kids, especially Hunter.

It is not something for the faint hearted. We have a lot of trust in our marriage and know where our lives are heading. We are extremely close, he is my best friend, soul mate and my rock. I always knew we would spend our lives together.

I also have to keep myself extremely well organised, if I don’t the kids and I would fall in a heap and it would be very chaotic.

During his last stint I was very sick with my pregnancy and if it wasn’t for my family especially my mum and dad, I seriously think I would have fallen in a heap. I have an amazing family, which helps a lot.

To put it in perspective, while he was here driving semis, we saw him every Sunday. He would always be tired and run down, but would still spend that day with us as a family. Now we get to spend a whole 2 weeks with him, every 8 weeks, which means we will actually be able to start going on holidays as a family which is something we haven’t done for 5 years. It works for us, I wouldn’t have life any other way.

Thanks for sharing your story with the Central Nest. You definitely are a brave and capable woman looking after four children while your husband works away! We applaud you!