[yardie]

I have a friend who works in the North Sea and I envy his life. We met and sailed the Mediterranean together. I took 2 years off to go sailing full time while he managed to work it into his schedule.

He is 3 on, 2 off or 2 on, 3 off the rig. While I’m back in the office he can continue to sail indefinitely. You can accomplish so much with a job that gives you plenty of time off every month.

[GordonS]

It's not so romantic if you have a family - and from the other side, as a kid, it wasn't nice for us having my dad away for weeks at a time.

[yardie]

It appears to be well paid. And as a kid that grew up poor if the choice was 3 weeks of parental non contact or mayonnaise sandwiches for dinner, well see you in a few weeks, mom!

[vertex-four]

There's a lot of training involved in going offshore, and if you're able to go through training to get out of poverty, there's a hundred other careers to go for that don't involve multiple weeks away from family.

[GordonS]

To be fair, we lived in an area where oil and gas are the biggest industries, and my dad was a geologist. But still, I wish he'd just been around more.

[erikpukinskis]

Is it important for families to be together 7 days a week?

[vertex-four]

I don’t see what that has to do with my comment. I’d suggest that it’s difficult to form a connection with someone who is not present in your life for significant periods of time on a regular basis, but of course it’s a sliding scale.

[mbrameld]

This feel like the setup for a false dichotomy...

[watwut]

It is not so much 3 weeks of non contact one time, but more of "parent is rarely there".

[GordonS]

It's only well paid when you're away - when you're onshore the pay goes down.

[fjsolwmv]

The tragic longing is part of the romance.