Balancing Family/Work

Sorry there is little to no balancing in this industry especially as an entry level otr driver.
The fact is everything you took for granted will be out the window. Anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, any normal weekend get together will cease. The job will come first and everything else will be a distant second. After you have a few years under your belt you will be able to get a dedicated run or local job and have a more normal life.

 

Your being gone is going to be the single toughest thing on your family. If you really want to drive, you may want to look around your area and see if there are any local companies that will hire people needing training. This way you can be closer to home, and possibly even get home more often than traditional OTR drivers do.

That being said, if you have to go OTR, then good luck. And even though you may get where you want to (in regards to your career), it may cost you the family life you have now. When I went OTR, I got lucky, and after about 4 months of it, I was able to get a regional spot that had me home every weekend (although it was only for a reset, and sometimes for less than a day). However, the strain that OTR put on my wife has really wrecked our marriage; we may be able to work through it, but I can't say for sure.
I didn't put that last item in there to scare you, but to help make the reality of OTR life more clear to you. THink about it long and hard, let your wife read some of the posts here, so she understands some of what is involved with your decision too. And good luck!