stehrn816

Thank you all for your thoughts, I really appreciate hearing both sides. I have thought quite a bit about this and I think that I am going to to look for a floor job. I would have a flexible schedule including nights, days and weekend 12 hour shifts so I can change my schedule to fit our needs. Also, after a while I could work only 2 days a week and still bring home my current paycheck, once daycare is eliminated. Just in case anyone else who has a similar question to mine reads this, here are my thoughts on why I want a 3 12 hour week: 1. I don't feel like I get to spend time with my child M-F. Yes we have dinner together, but by the evening is just getting dinner ready, cleaning and then bedtime. I understand that I could miss 3 dinners (or whole days) a week with my baby (provided I only worked days that week), but I would get all day with her the other 4 days. 2. I want to have some mid-week days off for adventures like baby and me classes, doctors appointments, or just a lazy day at home. 3. Even though I have weekends off right now, they are packed with grocery shopping, meal planning, cleaning, and family visiting. We have a standing every other Sunday night dinner with DH family and my family visits Sunday morning or Saturday most weeks. This leaves very little quality time for me to spend with the baby. 4. We want to have a 2nd child (in the next few years) and 2 children in full time daycare would be almost my entire take home pay. Working 3 12 hour shifts would let me work some nights or weekend and not have to pay so much for daycare. 5. I want to learn nursing skills that I can one day put towards another coordinating job (maybe once both kids are in school). Thank you all so much!

I need some opinions. I am a new graduate RN (passed boards in July 2016) and had my daughter in August 2016. I took a clinical research coordinator position at the beginning of the year. I had a background in research/science before getting my RN and thought that this was my ideal job. The pay is good and I have a university position with 8-4 hours M-F and no holidays or weekends. However, I have close to an hour commute each way and every day when I head home I get upset at the time I am away from my daughter. She wakes up at 6am and goes to be bed around 7:30pm, so I only get about 2-3 hours a day with her during the week (she naps from 4-5:30pm). I am thinking about looking into a floor nursing job working rotating 3 12hr shifts. I like the idea of building my nursing skills as I never worked as floor RN. Also, I think working 3 shifts would allow me more time with my daughter. As it is right now, I take her to daycare around 7am and my husband picks her up around 3:30-4pm, so she is at daycare the majority of the week. My husband works daylight hours 5:30am-3pm so this would be a big change for us. RN parents of small children please tell me what you prefer and works for you. My concerns are holidays away from baby/ family, daycare costs for full time (and we want to have another baby) and time with my spouse since we will be on different schedules. Any input you have would be great!