Mom's Working 12's?

[erika.RN]

Hello! I am looking for advice from Moms who work 12's. I have a young child (18 mos) at home & one on the way. Right now I work home health & work 4-5 days a week, but stay up very late charting on weekends & several weeknights. It has really cut into my free time with my husband who works 70-90 hrs a week (self employed). I had a job interview for a less acute med-surg type floor for more long term pts & the original job was for part time. However they have offered me full time days. I am concerned my days will be so long and I will miss my kids more, but then I also know 4 days off would be really, really great also.

Hoping to hear from other young moms with advice or wise moms who have been there done that. My shift would be 7a-730p w/1/2 hr commute & they have a wonderful daycare on site, my husband would pick the kids up at 5, & watch them weekends I was scheduled.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

Working 3 12 hour shifts a week is the best thing for my family. I at one time did weekend option Sat,Sun,Mon and was able to use family to babysit. No daycare in our area was convenient for the hours my husband and I worked. My husband has strange hours as he works for a transport company and his start and end times are different daily. With the 3 12 hours a week I could pick which days I worked and would be off during the week to take my son to preschool. With my current position I totally self schedule. Our department is small so we are able to do that.

[Nurse ABC]

Can you still do the part-time schedule even though they offered full-time? Full-time can turn into 4 days a week a lot of times and in our dept. we can't self-schedule at all. We can request days off and hope we get them or find someone willing to trade. These 12 hr shifts are very long, physically demanding, and stressful. You will have to get your babies up at 5 something and be out the door a little after 6am so you'll have time to get them to daycare. Also, we have to work an extra half hour because we aren't paid for our lunch and all of us usually work over a little so we aren't getting home til 8:30-9:00pm most nights so you won't get much time,if any, with your kids 3-4 days a week. You need to think about what would be best when your kids start school too. The grass isn't always greener. Can you work less days at home health or change companies? I understand it's a pain to chart late at night but at least you and your baby (soon to be plural :) are home! I'm not sure you're going to get much more time than you are now with your significant other by working 12's full-time. However, if you really want to try it then go for it. It wouldn't be too hard to get back into home health if you wanted to later or maybe a different part-time position. Good luck!!

[Caffeine_IV]

12 hour nights work best for our family right now. OP I would do part time to see if I liked it before committing

[Dianas1086]

I'm a single mom and 12 hr shifts only work for me when they're nights. On days, by the time I left for work my daughter was sleeping and by the time I got home 8:30-9:00ish at night, my daughter had gone to bed.