9 Reasons Why You Should Never Date A Paramedic

Ever since you were a little girl, you have prayed for that one Prince Charming to come and sweep you off your feet. You meet the man who you think is going to be your dream man, and you start off on a whirlwind romance. Slowly, the realities of how his job is incompatible with regular life creep in and ultimately, you will not be able to cope and will end it, or he won’t have the time to dedicate to you and he will.

1. He is working, all of the time. Full time paramedic jobs are very hard to come by and most of the guys have multiple part time jobs where they work 24 hours at station A, sleep for four hours, go to station B, sleep again, then go to station C.

2. Every time you text him, don’t expect a response for hours. You finally did it! You gathered up your courage and sent him that risky text message, good for you girl! What you don’t know is that as soon as you hit send, a call for a 5 year old in respiratory distress comes over the radio and your guy is gone for the next three hours.

3. You “tentatively” make plans for him to find out he doesn’t actually have off. The schedule comes out on Sunday for the following week and you find out that your man actually didn’t get off all day on Thursday and you can’t do that full-day activity you planned.

4. Did I mention he is always working? He gets paid by the hour and will almost never have time for you. Especially when you’re under 25 and dating a very healthy paramedic with a good back who can work 75 hours a week. Ask yourself if you’re content to date someone you only see once a week for a few hours.

5. He’s asleep when you’re awake and awake when you’re asleep. As a night shift nurse, this problem went away for us. When we first started dating I worked days and slept with my ringer on just in case that terrible “there’s been an accident” call would ever come. Instead, you get a barrage of 3 AM texts answering every message you sent him during the day.

6. Female paramedics will get very territorial over your man. No, honey. He is not your “work husband.” He is my boyfriend. You also can’t complain about this because his co-workers are like his family and you will never win this fight.

7. His co-workers are his family. If he works in a department that has volunteers, someone will know you as “so and so’s girl” everywhere you go. Buying pregnancy tests? Someone’s watching. Always.

8. He will stop and help anybody you see on the side of the road or anyone who looks like they need assistance. As a nurse, I’m legally obligated to do the same so it didn’t bother me, but other paramedic’s girls couldn’t handle this.

9. You will always feel like you are in last place. His career, his co-workers, his family. There are only so many hours in the day and you need to understand that a very small amount of them will be given to you.