Nursing School & Working vs Nursing School & Being SAHM

You have been asking alot of questions about this. If you have such doubts maybe you should wait. I am going to start my pre-nursing classes in Jan (crossing my fingers that I do well enough to land a spot in the nursing program!) and am a SAHM but I know I can do it, otherwise I would be waiting a little longer. I also think it depends on how old your kids are.

I have 2 friends who went to full time nursing school but neither of them had jobs too... You'd in a sense have 2 full time jobs then so how in the world would you have any time at all for your kids?...

Not quite the same, a friend who is a SAHM with 3 kids (31/2 yr old and 2 yr old twins) just finished a nursing ceritifcate program. She had a lot support from her family in terms of child care which helped a lot.

I wish you luck!

these type of questions always have to many variables
what the job would be for the working mom
how many kid and ages and behaviour of the younger kids
support systems
bed times?
and so on
my opinion is that I dont think whther you work or sahm matters unless your kids are school age because either way you cant study until they go to bed. Both are equally hard with small kids because the working mom would have to come home and tae care of kids until bed time, maybe squeezing a little study time in aat lunch and the sahm could possibly get in a little study time during naps if it could be worked but in both cases still notmuch would really get done until bed time.
my mom went to school full time to be a nurse when i was 7 and my brother was and and 9 and also worked full time as a caretaker. she didnt have much help. we would goto her jobs with her or she would stay up til 2am studying after we went to bed.

Going to school is a full time job. If you have interest in doing 2 full time jobs and having the kids in child care for double the hours, plus paying all that overtime for care then I guess it's okay to work AND go to school...

The reason financial aid is so much is to support you while you attend school. That way you can devote your time to your education.

It is always too hard to work, go to college, and be a mom. It can be done but why? Your kids will get tired of being in child care 12-14 hours per day and your life will be nothing but going to classes, going to work, going home and crashing. Then having to make excuses as to why you didn't get your homework or papers finished. And why you are making C's and D's instead of A's and B's.

You go to classes 5 days a week or 3 or 2. You can pretty much decide what days of the week you want to go for your basics. Once you get in the program they have the classes picked out for you and you have less flexibility.

So I say go to school full time and have your evenings for your family.

Take classes on M-W-F and use T-Th for studying, library time, homework, readings, all the other stuff. That way your kids are in child care full time each day and they don't have to switch back and forth all the time.

Full time child care is each M-F from around 8(ish)am to around 5(ish)pm. The certainly don't have to stay all day but the do need to stay until at least after nap time to keep them on their daily schedule.

You will also need to take them, or expect to pay for the weeks they go and don't go each and every week year round. I let my parents that were students take off Winter Break and Spring Break but not the interim between Spring and Summer or Summer and Fall classes. That was just too much money for me to lose. The way I did it they got 3 weeks of vacation time with out pay per year. If they went to work they were expected to be there full time regardless.

Well, neither is easy. The question I have is would you be working in your field? You'll learn more "on the job" if your job is working with other nurses. If you are working at the hospital cafeteria check out counter, no.

If you absolutely don't HAVE to work, I wouldn't. If you do have to work, make sure that it's a job that you can learn from.

Personally, I'd rather not have to work while going to school.

Dawn

Well, I would think - even with out much information that it would be easier to streamline and manage Nursing School while being a SAHM. You still have to clean and manage the kids, but I think you can juggle better with out adding the responsibilities of working full or part time. I will suggest doing as many of the following:

1. Get a mother's helper 2-3 days a week for 4/hrs a day
2. Hire a cleaning lady to do the deep cleaning and basics so you only have to do the daily maint. I would have her come to basic/vaccume/floors every 2 wks and a deep once a month or 6 weeks if you can go that long (grout cleaning, windows, baseboards, sweep cobwebs, etc).
3. Create a to do list that is for all to see - this way someone might be able to do something on the list for you! Ex: I put get milk and bread - hubs can do that on his way home, and will if he sees it.
4. Create a running grocery store list and have it on the fridge and as people use up items highlight or cross off or tick mark or something so you know it is out. Then before going you can double check everything. I have one on the fridge and the pantry cupboards (inside) with a pen velcroed to the inside of the door.
5. Sign the kids up for summer camps with the park district
6. Invest in a good crock pot if you do not have one already - and a deep freezer - this way you can pre cook/bake assemble food and just cook in the crock pot/oven easy and tasty meals for the fam w/out tons of prep or work daily.
7. Teach the older child/children how you assist with things like dishes/laundry and other daily chores.

Not sure of the ages, not sure of the demands of your schooling but these are things that I think would help.

So, again IF you can manage it financially (I know it can be tough) I would not throw a job in on top of schooling and child rearing and home making.