Nurses with elementary age kids and work 12 hours:need your advice!

Nurses General Nursing

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My kids will all be in kindergarten soon and the bus picks them up at 6:30 am near our home.Most likely, as a new RN, I will have to work the odd hours of 7am-7pm or vice versa. Im worried about how I'd get to work on time if my kids dont leave home till 6:30 am. Their dad leaves home at 4:30 am, so its just me. We have no relatives to help out. Hiring a sitter would be the only option, but I am skeptical that a sitter will want to travel at 5am and only stay until 6:30am, plus I would worry about their reliability....How do you all do it? I know there are nursing jobs that are more conventional hours , 9-5ish, but I know that as a new RN with 2 years experience (mostly in LTC, weekends only), it will be impossible to find a nursing office type job. I am strongly thinking of leaving nursing for a while, and just work as a secretary, office coordinator,.I know that sounds crazy, but I feel like thats my only choice.Its too bad nursing hours are not family friendly!How did you handle it?

What about neighbors or parents of your kid's friends that could help out? Does your kid's school have before and after school care? Is there a daycare close that will watch and transport you kids to school? These options you would have to drop your kids off somewhere on your way to work instead of expecting someone to come to your house so it may work better.

Specializes in Intermediate care.

i don't have kids, but my sister is kinda same situatuion. she uses surround care i think its called? it dropping off your child early at the school before school starts. i don't know who is hired to supervise and you do pay for it.

when i was in college i babysat for a single mom with 2 girls. She didn't have anyone to take the kids in the morning and she had to leave before the bus came. She droppped her kids off at the nieghbors house (actually a house 1 block away). So the kids would get dropped off there because she had 2 kids to get ready for school, then the bus would pick all 4 of them up.

Specializes in Pedi.

What kind of elementary school starts so early that the kids need to be on the bus at 6:30 am? What time does school start? In my area, schools typically don't start until 8am so when I worked in the hospital, my colleagues with children primarily worked nights.

Specializes in Psych.
What kind of elementary school starts so early that the kids need to be on the bus at 6:30 am? What time does school start? In my area schools typically don't start until 8am so when I worked in the hospital, my colleagues with children primarily worked nights.[/quote']

I am a prenursing student, so not much advice to offer...but I live in Upstate NY and my 12 year old son is picked up to be bussed to school at 6 a.m. School starts at 7:30, and we are not rural. It's crazy. I've been complaining this entire school year to no avail.

Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

I work 7am to 7pm. We use the onsite daycare at the elementary school. It opens at 6:30 am and closes 6:30 pm. I can't get there when my husband travels so I hire a babysitter to pick them up. For AM's I have to depend on a neighbor (you will meet other parents once kindergarten starts) and drop off the kids with her and she brings them to school along with her kids. I pay her in kind on days I have off and I pick up her kids from school so she can do some shopping/hang out with friends. I had to ask the teacher to post a request for help/child care in trade in her newsletter and several parents responded. I would recommend infusion clinic/office nursing/school nursing for when your kids are little tho as every week is a negotiation for me. I would like consistency. But I love having days off where I can help in class. Good luck with your journey.

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