Nursing school as a Mom

BeachsideRN, ASN · Jul 13, 2015

i have a 2 year old in my 2nd semester of the nursing program. It is hard but totally doable. You have to be on top of your game. Try not to procrastinate. You will need full support from your family/friends/etc for those emergencies that come up when kids need to be picked up from school, etc. Meal planning and scheduling everything has helped out tremendously.

jackieweldonrn · Jul 13, 2015

You can do it! Being a mom, you're already trained to be in a million places at once and getting a lot of stuff done in a short period of time.

I started nursing school when my son was 5 months old and graduated when he was 20 months old...and was pregnant with my daughter when I graduated. You've got this!

NurseGirl525, ASN, RN · Jul 13, 2015

I will be starting my second and final year of my ASN program this August!! I'm a single mom to 1 nine-year-old boy. I started back in August of 2013 and he was in second grade at the time. I started with my prereqs taking them while he was in school during the day. I will give you a few tips.

1. Get yourself extremely organized!! Use planners and dry erase boards. Make sure everyone is on the same page as you. Getting and staying organized is key. I carry around 2 day planners. I have several dry erase boards around the house. A general one by the front door, a one for chores in the kitchen, and one to organize my study schedule. It takes practice and screwing up a couple of times to realize how important it is.

2.Have a good support system in place. Who is going to get the younger kids to and from school when you can't. Who is there to take care of them when they are sick? Who is going to help them with homework. Extra curricular activities? I make out calenders a month in advance so each person knows what there role is that month. I print off calenders for each person to look at and know. Believe me, when my son had nobody to pick him up from the bus stop one time because my ex forgot it was his day, he got many copies of my calender.

3. Don't allow school to overtake your life. Maintain a balance or you will go crazy. I was worried my son would not have enough time with me or I wouldn't be able to have my relationship with my boyfriend who lives an hour away. This is where organization comes in. I have yet to miss any one of my son's basketball games or martial arts fights. I may be studying in a hotel room but I have yet to miss anything important. I've made it to school plays and awards ceremonies. Your kids remember these things so study accordingly. My books are put away at 9pm. That is me and my boyfriends time. I make 15 minutes each day to sit down with my son and talk about his day. We call it talk time.

I know you have more kiddos than I do. But I think if you plan properly and communicate with everyone so they are one board, it will run smoothly. I have had a hiccup here and there, but for the most part it has gone well.

stillmary · Jul 14, 2015

Thank you guys so much for the support and tips. I am already starting to organize. Actually found a lot of meal planning & crock pot stuff today, which I am planning on using. I really appreciate your input!

Stitch3296 · Jul 14, 2015

You can do it....and they will be some of your greatest cheerleaders. I just graduated this Spring. When I started school, my kids were 4, 8, 9, 11. They are now 16, 14, 13, 9. They learned a lot about independence and taking care of eachother. For me it was about deciding what was important. And being present with them when I was home was a big one. I tried to study when they were at school or sleeping. This often meant less sleep for me. I also wanted to be present for all their sporting events (they all do different sports...year round), which meant my me time was spent driving and I was ok with that. I also missed graduating with honors by 0.02%, or 2 exam questions. I was ok with that because I knew that I was present for them.

Another thing that helped was buying a huge calendar for the fridge and writing ALL of out commitments on the calendar so we knew what was going on for each of us. This included exams for me and big assignments so they would know I'd need extra study time.

Easy meals, and taking turns cooking as well as the occasional meal prep. I didn't do this as often because I found my family wasn't a huge fan of crock pot meals. Sometimes we had cereal for dinner...and one of their favorites breakfast for dinner.

One last thing we did was have family homework time, where we would all sit and work on homework...not my most productive moments but they loved all working together.

Good luck to you!! I'm sure your kids will be like mine, and be your loudest cheerleaders at graduation!