[crazyco]

I am just wondering if anyone has tried to go thru nursing school with parents who treat you like crap and dont give any financial or emotional support. All my family wants me to do is just go get a job right now so they wont have to support me at all financially and its so unfair. I decided after high school I wanted to work b/c school wasn't really for me, now I'm 22 and realized I have to get a degree to make any decent money and I want to become a nurse b/c I want to make a difference in people's lives. I see all my friends from high school getting cars from their parents and having their school paid for and it just makes me sick. I hope that if you have/had supportive parents when you were younger that you never take it for granted. I've never once received an allowance or had my gas paid for, sorry about the rant but my life would be a thousand times easier if I got the same suppport from my family that everyone else does. But my family thinks I should just work wherever I can until I can afford to pay for college(which is never going to happen). I'm so tired of being depressed b/c I cant find a job that I look forward to everyday. If anyone else has been in this situation, how did you get thru it? especially nursing school with all the stress involved? I cant imagine how I'm going to do it. I dont even care if I dont have financial support, I know I can get by without that but all I want is for them to say they're proud of me for wanting to better myself and they support the idea of me going to college.

[NancyNurse08]

Ugh. I'm sorry. The positive though, is that when you accomplish your goal on your own, it feels that much sweeter. Best of luck to you.

[BeachBayNurse]

Crazyco,

I personally know how it feels to be in this situation, but pat yourself on the back that you are realizing you need an education NOW, not when you are forty. You are already that much further ahead.

However, it is still a horrible situation to be in. My father had the idea that once you were eighteen, you were suddenly ready to take on the world. Nevermind the fact that I live in an area where the cost of living is unbelieveable. Some of my siblings because they didn't know better, or because they were too lazy to live without any luxuries to afford to go to school, started working in one dead end job after another. They also got married all at the age of eighteen thinking that person would make their life a little easier, started having children and are now totally miserable, divorced, with three and four children each and still without an education. I have no clue why my father is like this, as he is a very educated person, and even puts down nurses as being maids, even though I am the highest educated of my siblings.

Crazyco, you need to attack getting your education like your life depends on it. Being a nurse will open many doors for you, and although it is not the perfect career, you will have the means to live comfortably working three days a week, and not slaving away in some dead end job and barely make ends meet. Do whatever it takes: live very modestly, do not go out every night with your old friends, if you have to take one class at a time.

You can do it, you are already smart beyond your years!

[roypatrick]

I went to nursing school when I was 50 I told my dad I got on the deans list, he said, christ son your 50 years old cant you stay out of trouble. Become a Nurse for you

[oramar]

Originally Posted by roypatrick

I went to nursing school when I was 50 I told my dad I got on the deans list, he said, christ son your 50 years old cant you stay out of trouble. Become a Nurse for you

funny

[oramar]

It is OK to engage in a little self pity here for a moment or two, lord knows I have done it myself. However, as a grandmother, a nurse and a person who has had an interesting, successful life, I feel like I can give you some advice. Cursing the fates, cursing the past, wishing things were different will get you no where fast. Like I said I have wasted time doing it so I know how much easier it is to do it than to do something constructive. However, it is those times where you take a moment to assess where you are and what you have, then set some goals and make a plan to get to your goals that really count. When I was your age and had parents who were neither interested or capable of sending me for job training/higher education. So I first I trained as an LPN because it was much cheaper and all I could afford to do. I was lucky that my parents did allow me to live at home while I went to school, so that was something. Then I used the LPN license as a spring board to get my RN. Now I am not saying that is what you should do but I do know that you need somesort of plan for your life. Honestly, the years will pass no matter how you use them so you might as well use them to get ahead. You problem is not unique, I happen to know for a fact that in a lot of working class families children are viewed as a burden instead of a joy. Frequently, the parents most fervent wish is not for their child to get an education and have a good life but just for them to get out on their own and stop being a economic burden. It is just the way it is and the best way to live is just to accept the facts as they are and move forward.

[Natkat]

I'm sorry for your situation. I know it's difficult. I had an unsupportive family too. They told me I wasn't smart enough to go to college and that I should get married and have kids. So I did.

Now at 46 I finally graduated nursing school last week.

At least you are smart enough to know what you need to do. I wish I had ignored my parents and done what I know I needed and wanted to do.

Find financial aid. Get student loans. Apply for grants and scholarships. There is money out there. It's takes a little bit of leg work and research to get it but it's worth it.

Good luck!

[alyx]

ya..wallow in the pity for a moment and then move on. Focus on what U want and then take the steps to make it happen. Join study groups and find new friends with similar interests to support you...and you support them. Giving of yourself brings the best blessings! And try to remember as the days go by...how NOT to treat your children when you have them...there are lessons to be learned at the bottom of the pit....put them in your file but not in your backpack..you have enough to carry...and you CAN DO IT!!! Chin up..chest out...breathe and look straight ahead!!!

[Nightbloom]

My parents couldn't afford to send me to school. Look at it from their perspective, maybe your parents can't afford it or they never went to college so they don't see the value in it.

I got loans to get through school the first time around, but because I have a bachelor's degree in another field, I now cannot get grants or loans of any kind. My parents don't see the value in me switching careers and they can't understand why I'm not using the degree I already have. In fact, they have gone so far as to tell me I have been disowned and they are not talking to me anymore.

I have applied to nursing school. If I get in, I will have to work a full-time job on nights and weekends to make ends meet and I will have to get a job in the healthcare field to get tuition reimbursement. It is the only way I can do it. I cannot rely on anyone else but myself. I have 4 children and all the responsibilities that come with being a mom. I basically will not see my children for 2 years.

Make up a plan to get where you want to be and take that plan 1 day at a time. If this is what you want to do with your life, then make it happen.

[ann945n]

Im sorry you are not finding the support you need in your family. When people in your life fail to provide the support that you need you have to give it to yourself. There are many many options for student loans and grants. I would visit with and advisor and discuss your options. Most of the people I went to nursing school with had no support from their parents and got loans and grants and made it. Figure out ways to 'cut the fat' from your spending. Get rid of your cell phone, always eat at home, give yourself an allowance for fun and stick to it, it can be done! I had support from my parents but was still on a tiiiiiighhht budget. I cant say mine was the same but you would be surprised where you can squeeze money out when you need it. YOU CAN DO THIS, and do it now, like other said, before you are 40 with 3 kids and no means to do it. Now is the time. You are young and ony have to care for yourself. Now get to it