HitchDaysShort answer
Give them one number and one date, not the pattern. "Home in 6 days, on Tuesday the 13th" is easier to hold on to than "14 and 14, started on the 29th". For young kids, count sleeps on a calendar they can see. For your partner, put every crew change for the next few months on a calendar you both look at, and agree ahead of time on what happens when a date moves.
Start with the next homecoming, not the whole rotation
People on a rotation think in day numbers: day 9 of 14. Everyone else thinks in dates and sleeps. When your partner or your mom asks, the useful answer is the countdown and the date, in that order. Explain the pattern once, at the kitchen table, with a calendar in front of you. After that, the only thing anyone needs day to day is the next date.
For young kids: count sleeps they can see
- Use a number they can watch go down. A paper chain with one link per sleep, or a calendar where they cross off each night. "Six sleeps" means more to a four-year-old than "Tuesday".
- Use numbers, not faces. Mark the home day with something they pick, and keep the days before it plain, so the calendar counts toward something instead of marking sad days.
- Make the crew change day its own thing. A different color for the day you leave and the day you come back helps them see the edges of the stretch.
- Count sleeps, not days. If you get home in the evening of day 15, the number of sleeps from day 9 is six, the same as the days until home. Saying "sleeps" avoids the question of whether today counts.
For older kids: show them the month
School-age kids can read a month colored by hitch and home days. Put their games, recitals, and birthdays on the same page, so they can see for themselves which ones you'll make. It lands better coming from the calendar than from you, and it stops the same question being asked every week.
For your partner: the same calendar, months ahead
Your partner plans the household around your rotation, so they need dates further out than you do. Sit down once with the next three to six months. With a 14/14 that started on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, for example, you're home from November 10 to 23 and away from November 24 to December 7, which puts Thanksgiving on day 3 of a hitch, and the hitch that starts December 22 covers both Christmas and New Year's. Finding that out in September leaves time to plan around it.
Then put the dates where your partner already looks: a shared calendar, the fridge, or their own countdown on their phone. The iPhone Calendar guide shows how to make a repeating hitch in a calendar you both see.
Agree on what happens when a date moves
Crew changes move: weather, a late relief, a job that runs over. The disappointment is worse when nobody expected it. A few habits help:
- Call the date "planned" until a day or two out, especially offshore.
- Decide who tells the kids when it moves, and tell them the new number, not just that it changed.
- Update every calendar the same day: the shared one, the fridge, and the countdown on each phone.
- Give an arrival day, not an arrival time, unless you're sure of the flight.
Common mistakes
- Explaining the pattern instead of the date. "14 and 14" means nothing to a six-year-old or a grandparent.
- Only one person keeping the calendar. If only you know the dates, you'll be asked every time.
- Promising a time. Flights and crew boats run late; a day is a safer promise.
- Not updating after a change. An old date on the fridge is worse than no date.
Giving them their own countdown
The rotation calculator makes a link with your rotation in it, which anyone can open on any phone. HitchDays, the iPhone app this site is for, goes a step further: your partner can enter your rotation and pick "I never know when my partner is back", and their first screen reads "They're home in 6 days", with the date. That part is free. With HitchDays Pro you can also send a picture of any month to the family chat, or put your next 12 crew changes in the iPhone Calendar app. How sharing works.