Just finished school and family doesn't need me anymore.

[techtonurse]

Help! I need all the advice I can get. I just finished my nursing program and am trying to get back into the groove of things and finding out my family has moved on without me. I am married with a young daughter (6) and we worked together to get me through school. I worked full time and did what I could to help out when I could. Now that I am done, my husband and daughter don't want me around. They have "their way" of doing things and "their" routine. My interference is just that...interference. I am trying to integrate myself back into a normal life, but all I am doing is making their lives miserable. I never would have done nursing school if I had known it would cost me my marriage and daughter.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

llg has a great perspective on this, but I just want to ask one thing, OP: were you actually GONE from the home (similar to a deployment) or did you live at home but weren't available much? If it's the latter, it shouldn't be much of an issue to pick up some of the slack you left for THEM to pick up, now.

Unless I'm missing something (and I may very well be), I don't see how your whole homelife could have turned into such an upheaval, and strictly because of being a student. There are tons of people in your shoes, and this isn't much of an issue......maybe counseling is a really good idea, since it would seem that there's an undercurrent of something else wrong in this picture?

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

llg has given you some really good advice. I know it was hard for my husband and son when I went back to nights. They adapted and it works out just fine. I also just started going back for my BSN and classes are one night a week and sometimes that means my husband has an extra night of bedtime duty. This semester classes are shorter and I will be available that extra night a week.

Let them have their bedtime routine. Slowly work your way back into some of their routine.