I received product from Gel Pro in exchange for an honest review. All work is honest and my own.
Year after year, I have seen the toll of the job effect my husband. Not just the stress from the job mentally, but also the physical implications. Over time, his back has started to hurt from wearing a large, heavy duty belt. His feet now ache after every shift because of the hard, incredibly uncomfortable shoes or because he has been standing during a call for several hours. But he is not alone. These are common complaints of law enforcement officers throughout the country.
There is not much I can do about that large duty belt or those hard shoes, but when he comes home, I try my best to make sure he is comfortable. Our officers are doing SO much on a daily basis; the last thing they should have to worry about is the physical impact of the job on their bodies.
Here are 5 great ways you can help your officer feel comfortable once his shift is over:
Encourage your officer to stay off his feet for a bit
So many of us are eager to jump back into a normal routine once our officers are home. Or ask our officers for help around the house because we have been solo for a bit. But, in all honesty, that can be unrealistic. Mentally, our officers need time to decompress and come down from the job. Their brains are NOT always off duty even though their bodies are. So while they are decompressing for a bit, encourage them to stay off their feet. This will help their bodies rejuvenate after wearing those large duty belts and stiff shoes, in addition to resting their minds, as well. You can kill two birds with one stone here.
FREE Police Wife Guide- Top 10 Ways to Rock Police Wife Life
Learn to rock police wife life with these 10 easy tips! Join over 3,000 fellow police wives who are learning to rock it and feel supported with our help each week! Once a week I will provide you with even more ways to feel encouraged and supported for your law enforcement wife journey.
Make your home as comfortable as possible
Area rugs, a good mattress, quality carpet, whatever is important for your family. Making your home comfortable can help your officer relax when he is off duty.
Invest in Gel Pro mats
My husband and I have been buying Gel Pro floor mats for a few years now. The comfort they provide is incredible. It is a priority for us to have comfortable floor mats in our home, but especially our kitchen. We have 3 young kids, so as you can imagine, we spend a lot of time in our kitchen, not just making meals, but also refilling milk cups and dishing out snacks. It feels like we are in the kitchen all day long, so it is very important to me that my officer is standing on a soft, gel foam floor mat, rather than our hard tile floor.
We have gone with Classic Brown mats in the past, but recently changed it up and got the Naploli Style in Grey Mist.
We like to go with the Gel Pro Elite as it has a double-layer of comfort and we like the 3/4″ thickness level. The bottoms of the Gel Pro mats are slip resistant which, for us, is a huge plus with little ones running around our home. Overall, these mats help tremendously with my officer’s foot and back pain, taking discomfort down to a minimum.
And a HUGE bonus is that they support first responders and military by offering a 25% discount! You can check that out here!
Buy your officer house shoes/slippers
We never used to be slipper type of people, I guess you could say. But when we moved to a home with almost all hardwood floors, our backs started hurting worse. But my officer’s back pain was extreme. I think the toll of his job, plus walking on hard floors at home, really added up to stress on his body. So he invested in a nice pair of house shoes. He only wears them inside and he is much more comfortable. He even went with a pair of Camo Under Armour sandals because he liked that look better.
Make your home as stress free as possible
When our minds are stressed, we tend to carry that tension inside our bodies. My officer personally carries stress and tension in his shoulders and back, which can escalate any discomfort he is already having when he is wearing his uniform and gear. So making your home stress free could be very beneficial for your officer. You can do this by waiting to talk to your officer about very important topics until after he has rested a bit. Or when he is home, gauge how he is feeling- does it seem like he had a bad shift, just okay, was it a good day? He may need extra space based on the shift he had. Recognizing this as a spouse can greatly reduce stress for your officer.
We all want the same thing, right? Happy, healthy, safe spouses. I am sure we can all agree, we just want to do our parts to help the officer in our life as best as we can. Making home life comfortable is a great start!
Tired of struggling with night shift?
You CAN find balance while your officer works night shift! This handy NIGHT SHIFT ACTIVITY LIST & TRACKER will help prepare you for any long nights ahead. Join over 3,000 fellow police wives and download your copy today!
Subscribing also gets you a weekly dose of encouragement via my newsletter.
Read my PRIVACY POLICY here.