Mom & Nursing Student

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Hi Everyone, who here is a mom and a nursing student? How do you manage? Do you have any tips for other moms?

I have a 5 year old and just finished my first semester of nursing school. As long as you have child care for your children or their in school. Being a mom and a nursing student is not all that hard. I only have one child and you just have to learn how to manage your time. She knows mommy has to study or mommy has school the next day so we can't stay up late and watch movies etc. as long as you have support and you won't be missing class because of lack of child care you will be fine.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I have 4 kids, ages 15,13,12,7. I'm currently in an ADN program, 2nd year. After this quarter, I will have 2 left. All of my kids participate in extracurricular activities, and my husband is high up in his company and unfortunately works a lot of hours so isn't as big of a help as he could be; and while my in-laws live close by, they aren't always available to help. Here's my experience/tips:

Every family is different, but nursing school is completely manageable with kids. I drive my kids to all their practices and games. For practices I take my books with me and read while they practice. I also carry my drug cards with me to review. I make sure that no matter where I go I have something with me to study just in case I have a free moment. I have also tried getting up early to read, staying up late to read. Honestly what works for me is getting up early, but instead of read I spend those few minutes doing something I enjoy, whether it's pinterest or reading these boards. Then if I have time in the morning I read. I also study when they study. Some nights we will all work on "homework" together.

The biggest thing for me is to take advantage of all my "free" time. The time that would normally be for me, I give to my kids so I think that's the biggest sacrifice. The other thing we've done is told our kids once mom has a job and has worked a little bit we will take a family vacation. And let them look into areas they want to go and given them something to look forward to when all this craziness is finished!

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Thank you for posting this. I will be starting my first semester of an ADN program this Fall with three little ones ( 8, 6, & 4 years old). I'm very worried about how I'm going to get through nursing school. I'm glad I found this thread. Thank you to all the moms who have shared their tips and experiences. It's very reassuring to know that it has been done and it is not impossible. :)

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I graduated in January and have four kids....and until November was a single mom for all of it (my ex and I got back together after five years just in time for him to watch me graduate)

Focus on the kids, and focus on school. Housework can wait. Even little ones can fold laundry and put it away. Loosen expectations and ask for help. It's a short time in life, and time spent kicking butt on exams and hugging your babies when they're little passes so quickly.

Finally, know that it's totally possible!

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Thanks for posting! I'm about to be in the same boat. We have two kids, 7 and 4, and my husband is in the military. We're getting ready to move duty stations and states. Therefore, I will not know anyone and have about 3 weeks to find a place to live, move in, and find good childcare. There's no possible way I can rely on him to watch them if either child gets sick and he is away from home a lot. Right now, I am just praying I can find good affordable childcare!!

I plan to set Sunday aside, unless I have an exam coming up, to just spend time with the family. The prereqs weren't a big deal bc I could miss class if they were sick. With NS, that will not be an option!!

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I just graduated. I have 5 kids, 16, 14, 11, 11 and 16 mo. I had the baby in my second semester of an accelerated BSN program. My husband is very supportive and worked his schedule around mine, as much as he was able. I also live around the corner from extended family that were my main child care, and I had a good back up system of friend and folks from church.

I scheduled study time away from home. I found there was too much to distract... The kids certainly, but also the dishes, the laundry, etc etc. I made sure to schedule enough study time, so that when I was home, I could be fully present and not half mom/half student. I also tried to never study on Sundays, so I could have one day off and just hang with the family. I had to let some things go, my older kids and my husband had to pick up the slack with the house, and I had to let them do things their way, lol. I had spent almost 15 years as a SAHM and a homeschooler, so that was a big adjustment for me.

I kept a color coded google calendar so I could keep everything straight, including assignments and kids schedules and family stuff. This helped because I could keep from scheduling family stuff the night before and exam, lol. I also had a really supportive cohort, who shared notes and study guides and just generally supported one another.

I think the thing that helped us get through above everything else was the knowledge that my program was about 18 months, and we knew we could do anything for a set period of time. This crazy schedule wasn't the rest of our lives, it was just for 18 months. All we had to do was get through that 18 months.

Good luck mamas, you can do it!

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Specializes in Critical Care/MICU.

Hello, Do not mean to intrude. But I posted a support thread fofr pre-nursing moms in the pre-nursing forum/folder. I thought It would be a great idea to create a support thread as there are so many of us (moms) trying to transition into nursing and we come across a lot of challenges, so I though why not start a support thread where we can discuss tips on time mangement, classes, quick meals, how to get some me-time and etc. I am pretty sure we can all learn from each other struggles. so some stuff we might not have to go thru by ourselves, but together. Let US MOMS UNITE! The Link IS Below!

https://allnurses.com/pre-nursing-student/pre-nursing-moms-926962.html

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Specializes in Critical Care/MICU.

THese stories are soooooo inspirational!! I just got done reading them all! Great tips and advice! I defenitely heart you all for scraficing and making time for the better so inspirational! I have to put a link of this thread in the PRE-NURSING MOM UNITE THREAD, im sure all of these tips are so helpful. :yes:

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(X-post on another mom and nursing school post)

I have 8 children and just finished first semester. 3 hours for every credit hour is what I put in. I had 15 credit hours but was in class really 21 and spent 60 hours total a week. My husband had the brunt of the work because he only worked 40 hours a week and I made the weekly time with family, weekly time for husband, and weekly time for me, or at least I tried. I did get 2 A's and 2 A-'s.

What helped. Cozi.com for a family calender. I cooked a ton of freezer meals beforehand and then my husband cooked 3 batches of Saturday's dinner (1 to eat and 2 to freeze) and 3 batches of Sunday's dinner (again 1 to eat and 2 to freeze). Friday nights were pizza night. So with the previous frozen dinners there was a wide variety of dinners to put in the oven or slow cooker Monday through Thursday. I would make and divide all my proteins for my lunch salad and freeze them so they were ready to go.

What also helped were study buddies that could fit my schedule. If I had to meet them somewhere it would motivate me to study because quite honestly, you get sick of all the work at about week 3. ;)

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Make a schedule, even if it is loosely followed, it will help you keep your sanity. I am a mom of 4, and it often seemed kids were running in 20 directions. By scheduling even my study time, I had a basic idea of how much time i really had. I let the kids know ahead of time, mom needs to study because she has an exam... They knew to leave me alone.

I also kept a whiteboard calendar in an open area of our home, I wrote down when I had class/clinicals, and all our family events, sports etc etc. That way even if a sitter was here, they knew to check the whiteboard in case i forgot to tell them something (which when you are busy studying for exams, happens a lot lol).

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Nurse2b9742 made a good point about sharing schedules: I forgot to say that I shared my google calendar with my main sitters, so they always knew what was coming up and and we were all on the same page. I know you can do this with Cozi calendars too.

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I just finished up my first semester with a now 18 month old. I made it a priority to spend time with my son and didn't allow school to run my life. With that being said I didn't make straight A's. But it was a personal choice for me to put my family first, not saying putting school first is bad it was just a personal choice.

I also have a job that allows me to study while working so I would commit 18-20 hours studing Wed-Friday when I worked, I never studied at home (unless I had a care plan to complete or exam coming up). I did meet my study group once a week (again unless we had an exam and then we would meet more). I made Saturday my family day and didn't even think about school! I did okay, made the whole spectrum (1 A, 1 B, and 1 C 79.4 :( bummer) but I am okay with those grades and will try harder next semester to make all A's and B's. Good luck!

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