Cold feet before even starting

[jj16, BSN]

Hi Beth,

I am mom to 4 boys, ages 2 - 9. I have a Masters in Education, but only worked for a few years before taking what was supposed to be a year off after the birth of my 2nd son. Life changed and one of my sons developed a severe/drug resistant seizure disorder. The next 5 years of my life were spent caring for him (and his brothers), and managing his ketogenic diet which was the only thing that would control his seizures. In the course of his illness, I was blessed with so many wonderful nurses and decided that this was something I wanted to pursue. I'm now 39 years old, I've been home with my kids for 7 years and every time I try to sign up for my prerequisites, I panic. I am terrified of the stress that being a nurse may put on my family. I have considered becoming an ultrasound technician, because I do think it would be interesting and I feel as though the cost of the program would be less and the pay would be good. I keep thinking that I'm about to turn 40 and maybe this would be a better route for me to still be able to be there for my children the way I would like to be, while making good money and keeping my stress level fairly low. However, I worry about being bored and basically the monotony of doing the same exact thing every single day. I like the idea of nursing, because there are so many avenues I can explore, but, two of my sister-in-laws are nurses and they constantly complain about the stress, the paperwork, the condescending Dr.'s, the way things have changed since they started 20 years ago, etc. I'm unsure of whether I could handle the fast-paced environment and the stress. I'm still paying for my Master's in Education and I'm terrified of going to nursing school, only to find out I couldn't hack it. On the flip side, I'm terrified of going to ultrasound school and realizing, I am bored and wishing I would have went for nursing. Help!