mom vs nurse

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm a mom of 4 kids (3, 5, 7, 9) a student right now, soon to be an RN. I just wondered how those of you who also have young children or large families juggle the 2 roles. I know there will be a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of compromise. What are some things that work for your family?

If you have a signigicant other, now is the time to use them!! If they can drop off and pick up kids, all the better! And grandparents LOVE to be part of all of this, so it may be that grandpa would LOVE to drop off the kids!!

Evening before, check backpacks for homework, notices, and the like, all kids have showers, they have their clothes laid out, breakfast table set, lunches packed as much as they can be, schedule o the day written out....I love a white board, or leave a list.

I get up a bit early, get in shower, when I am out, robe on, and kids up and getting ready, finish packing lunches and everyone has backpack by the door. When they are eating, I am getting dressed. Big ones help the little ones. When I leave, the kids are dressed and ready to go to school, and your s.o. can do the drop off? And they all are clear on what is happening after school. I like to do my homework when either the kids are doing theirs before supper, or after everything is ready to go for the next day. I put a load of wash in while I am up doing homeowork. It is a great idea to do 2 weeks of shopping. Sundays I make a baked chicken or something that can go for leftovers a couple of times. I make use of a crockpot in the morning. A couple times a week the kids buy lunch--then they can have a soup and sandwich for supper. One night is pizza night--bag salad as well. If a get a good deal on hamburger, I make and bake meatballs that I can freeze. Then it makes for easy crockpot stuff. This too shall pass and before you know it you will be out of school--but I find I still do the same type A organizational stuff to this day.....LOLOLOLOL but it has worked that my kids are very organized for their day to this day.......

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Wow! you guys are amazing. I'm trying to find a good organization system for the family. Rigth now my husband works nights (supposed to be 2nd shift) but leaves at 3pm gets home at 4am. So he's not a lot of help right now, he's looking for a day shift position to transfer to though. Anywho....I'm looking for something to help me keep everyone's everything in line so I can try to remember stuff and keep up with it. Love the freezer cooking idea and the crockpot is my favorite invention ever, next to my smart phone!! lol

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Specializes in critical care.

A smart phone is a must!!!! Get one that will seamlessly sync your calendars between you, your hubby and your computer and/or e reader. And make sure the calendars auto sync. I have an iPhone, iPad and MacBook. I live and die by my calendar. If its not on there, it doesn't exist. Period.

I have 2 kiddos, a hubby on second shift and I'm in my first semester of a BSN program. My first year of prereqs, both kids were he with me. My second year, they both were in school full time. I can't tell you the massive difference. The best advice I can give any mom is wait until they are in school full time if you don't have family that you can regularly call on for hours-long blocks of time. You don't just need time for classes, you need time for studying. My husband had a hard time getting that. He thought time out of class was free time. (Don't even ask what his college gpa was lol)

We have honestly not made a plan for when school is done. I'm leaning toward working nights, but my husband's schedule does make things complicated. We still have a year and a half to figure that out.

Slow cookers are great, planning meals and shopping ahead, having your kids help you study (kids LOVE this, especially little ones!), and religiously following a calendar have been my saving graces. I've also obsessively planed every step of my journey far in advance so there are no surprises.

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Specializes in LTC.

I work full time evening (3-11:30 pm) and have two kiddos, ages 3.5 and 10 months. Right now, working evenings is great because I have the mornings free to spend with my kids, run errands, clean the house, etc. But I don't want to be working evening once my oldest starts school because I would only see her in the morning before school then she would be in bed when I get home. One thing that helps me a lot is on my days off I cook extra portions of all meals so I have leftovers to eat at work. And just accept your house will be a disaster most of the time. If we have clean clothes and dishes and the floors are reasonably clean, I consider it good.

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