Hello!
I'll be 30 next year, and I'm unmarried with no children. I'd spent my early career years in a field where that was an advantage (I moved intercity/internationally often). Right after uni I'd done a year in AmeriCorps that really planted the seeds of nursing in my head, and now I'm finally doing what I feel I should. But! Now that I've jumped in and started my pre-nursing track I've been absolutely shocked by the negativity I've been getting from nurses and nursing students I've met recently - due to my choice of lifestyle.
I was asked the other day by an RN family friend how I could possibly be thinking about going into nursing when I couldn't even be selfless enough to take care of a child. Couple of weeks ago I was even told that patients wouldn't trust me as much if they thought I "hated men and children" (!!!!), and that getting hired would be harder since "family life shows that you're a reliable, caring person". These are just a handful of negative opinions I've been served, and they're certainly jarring.
I'm hoping this kind of attitude is just due to the region I live in now. But it's making me feel truly awful. Is it that strange to find a single, childless person over 30 in nursing? And is there really that strong of a general impression that a single woman is an inadequate caregiver?