So, prior to nursing I was full time military. Because I had kids, I worked retention and it was a GREAT schedule. Drop kids at day care at 6, work until 2, grab kids, get home between 3-4 (I live in the valley and worked in orange county), settled in, made dinner, baths, finish up work if I have to, relax put everyone to bed....wash rinse and repeat. At that time my kids were 10mo and 23mo and I did that until they were 4 and 5. My contract ended and I got out (some retention huh? LOL!) and I hung around the house a bit until they were 5 and 6, and started nursing school. I am married to a police officer who currently works 4pm-2am. I must admit, I have been SPOILED when it comes to work and the kids. There were days that I could work from home, so I'd take a portable wifi hub and hang out at the park and do work there....and I will say my kids are SPOILED with me being available, and I am spoiled. The appeal of nursing (one of) was the 3 or 4 shifts a week. Now the kids are 9 and 8 and I'm almost done with school. With both my schedule and hubby's schedule, I'm kind of afraid of what the kids are gonna deal with. We have no close by family, BUT my MIL did just retire so she could conceivably come down for a 3 or 4 day stretch and watch the kids for us...
What shifts do you moms/dads do that still allow you the most time with your kids? Hubby is still in the National Guard and just promoted into a line unit, so he will now be working consistently 1 weekend a month (before he was an instructor so he'd be gone for two weeks to a month ever 3-4 months) so I figured that would be a weekend I could give to the hospital since his unit is by my sister's house and he would just stay the weekend there instead of driving and take the kids with him--bonus! They can see auntie, he can drill, and I can do three days over the weekend that way.
What shifts do you do that you think are best for school aged kids? School for them is 830-315 and hubby goes into work at 3 to get ready for shift to start at 4. Do you use nannies? If so, how did you find them? This is all SO NEW and I'm getting rather nervous about all of it!
