CNL 16 month program with children

me0923a · Jul 22, 2009

Hi. I do not have children but what I have heard from A LOT of people is that the 16-month option is very very very time-consuming. Most people do not even have part-time jobs; I know I don't plan to have anything on my plate but school. That being said, for my first semester I am out of class at 3pm everyday and clinicals won't start until November. If your kids are old enough to be in day care then you may be ok as I imagine they go to bed decently early giving you time to get work done afterwards. That is all I have to offer you, unfortunately I just saw no one had replied so I thought I would share what I know. Best of luck!

SiennaGreen · Jul 22, 2009

Again, I can't speak to CNL, but I am doing a regular program w/ three young ones 2,5,8. It is way time consuming to do well. My grades are very important because I want to move on to grad school and keep my scholarships, but even so; I could NEVER do it without a very supportive spouse who is also a wonderful, fun, loving Daddy to our kids. He has had to give up a LOT of outside activitied and basically functions as a single Mom most days of the week.

My schedule during the school year looked like this: DH goes to work at 4:30 so he can get off early enough to be home when school gets out; I'm up at 5:30, gather books, materials, lunches, school stuff; begin dropping kids of at 6:50; arrive at school at 8:00; lecture begins 9:00 - 2:00 (on lecture days); clinical runs from 7-3 and those days DH went in to work late so he could drop kids off; study groups gathered after lecture or in the evening 2-3 days of the week; and often times we met on the weekend for an afternoon block. Beyond the logistics, I had many evenings when I reflected on the day and the fact that the only interaction I had with my kids was to herd them out the door in the morning and it made me quite sad. I wondered "Why am I doing this? Why now?" If I didn't have a strong reason that the timing was right and people around me to say "They'll be fine. It's a short season.", I'm not sure that I wouldn't have postponed it. However, is there ever a better time in your kids development? One where they will need you less? For me, I didn't think so.

Having said that, it turned out that it wasn't as difficult as I expected, but many others were overwhelmed. I had really planned for the worst case. Each situation is very individual, but I would say that is you have childcare figured out, and back up childcare down solid for when you have sick ones (which happens a LOT!), if your support relationships are solid (spouse or otherwise) and they are totally behind you and want to see you succeed......then, you probably can make it happen.

Best wishes in your decision!

Blondell · Jul 22, 2009

Thanks a million Me0923a and SiennaGreen,

Right now I have not change my thought about going for 16 months program. My plan is I will have my mom to come and stay with us the whole time, and my kids is very young 3 yr and under 2. I will quit working and go to school full time and deal with it. Since it gonna be hard either way so I chose the harder one(16 mons) to get over with. I keep telling myself that it will be hard and I will deal with it in someday. Well , all this won't happen if I won't get in he he he

Thanks again,

Blondell

dcgrrl, ASN, RN · Jul 28, 2009

KUDOS to you SiennaGreen!!

I look forward to reading posts such as yours to remind me that it may be hard ... but it can be DONE. I have three boys (6,7,12) and I wonder how this will affect them when I begin nursing school next Fall in an evening weekend program. So far, it hasn't been too bad getting thru my prereqs but I know nursing school is another beast . . . add to that I currently work full time so I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do.