The Right Time To Have Kids

Nurses Career Support

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Hey everyone, I am a rising junior in highschool trying to plan out my life. I plan on getting my BSN, then working on a peds/oncology floor for 3-4 years (hopedully:)) to save up enough money for Pediatric NP school. By then I will be almost 30. My question is where do kids come along? I come from a lower class family and I want my kids to live a better life than I did, so having kids as a RN might not be the best option. Is 30 too old to have kids?Any nurses with children please give me advice, thanks.

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Specializes in PACU.

People have kids over the age of 30 all the time. It's not really that big of a deal.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.

I say this with kindness: you are a child. My baby brother is a few years older than you. At this stage in life, you need to be focused on graduating high school, not babies. At your age, I wasn't even thinking about motherhood. I was too busy worried about getting my license, acing the SATs/ACTs and figuring out what colleges to apply to next year.

Focus on getting good grades, getting your diploma and getting into a decent college. Babies are, at minimum, 12+ years away. Sooner or later you will realize that life is complicated, **** happens, and things cannot always be planned.

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I'm a virgo so i'm very detail oriented and I plan things way ahead of time, but thank you for your response. I'm not in a rush to have kids I just wanted to know and I realize motherhood isn't always planned Lol, but thanks.

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Specializes in Psychiatry, Community, Nurse Manager, hospice.

There's no wrong time to have kids. Advantages to having them younger: the body takes it better, psychologically you tend to be more flexible. People who go this route tend to build their careers around their kids/family. Advantages to waiting a bit: you are more financially stable, you may be more stable in a relationship.

I think it's great that you are thinking about this stuff now and I encourage you to keep thinking about it, and keep working on your plans. Just be willing to change the plan if you get info that necessitates a change.

Stuff to consider: what kind of childcare arrangement do you want? Do you want to stay home, work part time or work full time when your kids are little? How many kids do you want to have? If you want a big family, you can't wait too long. If you just want 1 or 2, you can wait to 35, or even a little later.

You could bank up PTO as a nurse and get quite a bit of leave going for being home with your baby. There is also FMLA, for job security.

Whatever you choose, there will be both sacrifices and rewards.

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