what is 'Best Shift' and/or 'Area of Nursing' to be in for Single Moms?

I would think the 7-3 shift would be the best
Per diem would be my 2nd suggestion.

It totally depends on your situation. If you are a single mom with a child who is in school, my recommendation is to get into office nursing because your hours with better correlate with your child's school hours, and you will not be working weekends/holidays. School nursing would be even better because you'd also have the summers off with your child.
If you have a younger child, hospital nursing may be better because you can (depending on where you work) choose to work four 8hr or three 12hr shifts. That can work out great if you can find a hospital that has good on-site childcare because they'll even stay open til 7pm until your shift is over. I am kind of in that situation right now. I am working three 12s and I have a two yr old that stays with her dad some days and my mom some days. I like having more days off with her than I would if I worked in an office 4 or 5 days a week. As she gets older though, I will most likely go into office or school nursing so I can have evenings at home with her and not have to battle the holiday time.
Hope that helps.

I worked night as single mom and still do. My mom or boyfriend watch my son overnight. If kids are in school then home care or infusion home care is flexible with hours during the day.

I don't think so.
I believe per diem (daily rate) means, not regular shift and you pick which days and times you want to work.
A schedule is printed out with the days and time and you elect which.

HTH

Well like I said, it totally depends on your situation. That may well be what works best for you, and that may be totally unworkable for someone else. I personally was so wiped out from night shift, I felt like I spent all my days recovering rather than enjoying time with my child. However, my child does not have kindergarten to go to, which would be some good time to sleeo.. she only has a mothers day out 3 mornings a week to help us out.
As far as shifts go, no I did mean four 8hr shifts, not 5. You MIGHT be able to find a place that does that, I've just never seen it.In the hospital world, 32 hours is considered full time for most networks. This is becuase if you worked five 8 hr shifts, that would automatically always put you at 40hrs, and any thing over that is considered overtime. And since you'd actually have to arrive at your shift 15 min early and leave 15 min later than your shift's start and end time (for nursing report, etc), that would always put you into overtime.. and I will tell you it is rare for a nurse's job to be over at the end of their shift. I am usually still there charting for at least 15 to 30 minutes on a fairly good day. Also, if you worked 5 8hr shifts, that would leave very little flexibility in your scheduling, as most units require you to rotate and work some weekends here and there unless you have alot of staff on weekend plan.
Every nurse I work with has a unique childcare situation.. and we all have our kids doing something different to make our lives work. You just have to figure out what works for you. Nights may be it. Nursing is defintiely not ideal for being a single mother, although there are some great positives to it as well if you can get it worked out right. Best of luck to you!

And remember - with nursing, you can try a schedule and if it doesn't work.. you can always leave for another hospital or change your area of nursing entirely. Nothing is permanent. If nights turn out to not be a great fit for you, a school nurse job might just pop up at your daughter's school and you might have her same schedule, you know? There are so many options and it will just take some tweaking to get yours right.