I am not sure what to say about that.
this post was submitted on 07 May 2026
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As an old medic and firefighter, I missed my share of family things. Holidays were for spending time with your closest coworkers in the ER. New Year's Eve, (my wedding anniversary), often meant spending quality time crawly inside a car wreak to get someone out alive. My one daughter's high school graduation I was paged out for some little old lady's heart attack in the middle of her party.
So, was I a bad father or am I the victim of a bunch of narcistic people that decided to have the worst day of their lives and dialing 911 to ruin my any and all 4 of my daughter's special occasions?
You sacreficed your family time for the good of the community, which is a worthwile and selfless thing to do.
The post op shared is probably not about a person who sacreficed his family time for the good of the community or as a selfless act but rather out of greed for the paycheck at the end of the month.
How does transportation work when you were paged? Do you just take your own vehicle everywhere or did you leave the rest of your family to find their own way home?
This was a rural setting. So scheduling worked a bit different from it does in the big city.
First, we had just 11 people to provide 24/7/365 service. So, we would work 12hr shifts a week on as primary to respond first during the day. After a week of that you would move to the 12hr night shift for a week. Then you become secondary rig for 2 weeks. This meant you could stay home and only respond if the primary rig was busy. But you couldn't leave town. And being a rural service, a second rig wasn't always needed. So you could do birthday parties and such, but you might need to randomly. Or maybe you made only one call all day. Then you became tertiary and would only respond to All Hands On Deck emergency. You could even leave town and go shopping.
Only one time did my family witness me working call. We were headed out of town for Thanksgiving and there was a car accident-- a rollover in the ditch. My daughters got wide-eyed as I drove past the deputy controlling traffic and headed into the scene. We got close, I parked the car and jumped out and ran down the ditch. The car was on it's side and the fire department was just finishing up securing the car. And I climbed in to start caring for the patient. The 2 EMT-Bs working that day were getting busy organizing the extrication and first aid supplies, (we suspected a broken leg). The boys had fun cutting the roof off enough and rolling the dash to free the patient, and we got them out and loaded into the ambulance. I watched the rig drive away, walked back the car got in, and we drove to Grandma's house.
Interestingly, after that none of my Daughters ever complained about daddy missing a softball game or play ever again. When I had to skip out on the one Daughter's graduation party, somebody asked her where I was running off to, I heard her laugh and tell them it happens all the time and I would be back in an hour or so.
One of the nicest parts of going from rural to a city was turning in that damn pager.
I do miss sleeping at night on shift, though.
Yeah, that pager runs your whole life and controls what you can and cannot do out here in the wilds. I hated that dispatch would hit every pager in the county all summer about any little weather watch. I mean come on! It's just a watch. Page me when a tornado actually hits. Until then, let me sleep.
I thought about going to the city. Better schedule and more money and more calls. But somebody has to be out here in the hinterlands. There just ain't enough of us anywhere, city or country.
You stay safe and party on!