Taking time off to take care of my new baby? Bad for career?

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Hi,

I’m currently on Maternity Leave with my newborn, but thinking about not going back for now. I just don’t feel comfortable sending such a young baby to daycare or leaving with a stranger. I’m wondering if anyone else has experience with this and if it was hard to find work later? 

While I was able to take longer maternity leaves with my first two kids (different field), I put my third baby in daycare at 11-weeks-old to work at the hospital FT.  In my case, I was a new nurse, and taking an extended leave would have put me in the position of being difficult to employ.  If you have lots of experience, you'll be in a better position to take more time off and get rehired than if you're a relative newbie.

On a related note, what I've learned about childcare is that most of the people doing it really love kids.  You're not leaving your baby with "a stranger."  You're leaving your baby with an infant teacher who loves infants.  You're leaving your baby with a babysitter who loves babies.  You and your child get to know that person really well really fast.  Our current sitter is in our COVID "bubble" and is really cautious about whom she interacts with (not going to her family's big Thanksgiving gathering), and my daughter considers the sitter's daughter her "best friend."

I have had good luck in finding two centers and a semi-nanny who were all really great, so there has never been the problem of worrying about how my baby was doing without me.  That doesn't mean it was never hard to juggle work and lack of sleep, or juggle working and pumping during breaks, but my baby's health, safety, and happiness were never at risk.

Maybe consider interviewing some of the options near you.  You might find you are more comfortable with the actual people you meet than the idea of "a stranger."  Or not.  But at least then you'd know for sure that staying home is worth the potential risk to future employment.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, NICU.
On 11/18/2020 at 7:45 PM, Been there,done that said:

Do you have to work to pay the bills?  If not, stay home with your baby. Why work.. to have someone else raise your child?

Best wishes.

Working parents raise their kids too.

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If you don't need the income, I vote to spend as much time with your baby as your heart desires!  Adjust your career to fit your family life, not your family life to fit your career. (Of course that's not an option for everyone.) Because of the pandemic, it'd be nice to keep a newborn home from any childcare exposures, but it'd also be nice for you not to worry about what you're bringing home from work.

I really do think nursing is like riding a bike. It's been very easy to step back into clinical positions any time I've taken a break from working in the clinical setting. Even in a saturated market, no hiring manager has given pause. That's not to say none would, but if you're an experienced nurse, I don't think it's a major issue.

And shoot, with the treatment nurses nationwide have been receiving from employers during covid, and the mental health effects on many covid RNs, there may be a very understandable mass exodus from the career when things settle. My personal prediction is that a year from now there will be many nursing openings.

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Specializes in Community health.

I know there’s the concept of “don’t have a gap in your resume.”  However, nobody looks at a 30 year old woman with a 3-year gap and thinks “Gee, wonder what she’s been doing for the past three years.”

One strength of the nursing profession is that it is still largely female. The majority of females will have a child at some point. Therefore, the vast majority of people who you meet in nursing are mothers, or have helped raise children in other ways. Everybody gets it. If you can financially swing it, and you want to, take the time!  Also consider the benefit of getting out of the house, as someone else mentioned. I was home with my son the whole time he was little, and there were times when my sanity was absolutely hanging by a thread. If I could have had a per diem job where I worked a few shifts a month, it would have been a lifesaver for me. 

22 hours ago, ThePrincessBride said:

Working parents raise their kids too.

Yes, I hate when people say “somebody else is raising them.”  No they aren’t. When my son was little, I stayed home but my best friend worked. We had exactly the same concerns for our children and we were both “raising them” for heavens sake. 

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Specializes in Peds ED.
On 11/25/2020 at 10:56 AM, ThePrincessBride said:

Working parents raise their kids too.

5 hours ago, CommunityRNBSN said:

Yes, I hate when people say “somebody else is raising them.”  No they aren’t. When my son was little, I stayed home but my best friend worked. We had exactly the same concerns for our children and we were both “raising them” for heavens sake. 

Have you ever heard it suggested that fathers that work are letting someone else raise their kids? I sure haven’t. 

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On 11/21/2020 at 9:36 AM, Curious1alwys said:

I did this. I won't lie, it was a hard crawl back. Mostly though because I didn't stay per diem/PRN. Do that if you can. You will be glad you did because when I went back I had to go back to school (my choice), take a refresher course (not my choice) and just felt so, so rusty, it created more anxiety than it was worth! Staying PRN will save you all that headache because no matter what, once you are gone for 6+ months, gone completely, they start looking at you as having no "recent" experience. Congrats on your new baby, I agree it is time you will never get back. I still feel that way and my kids are 10 and 12. ? 

How long did you take off? Does this apply even if you only take a year off?

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Specializes in cardiac/education.
On 1/7/2021 at 2:49 PM, nurseinthecity11 said:

How long did you take off? Does this apply even if you only take a year off?

I took nearly 5 years off. But it could apply even if you just take a year. Doesn't take very long for them to consider you "rusty". 

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On 11/25/2020 at 10:56 AM, ThePrincessBride said:

Working parents raise their kids too.

Certainly. But parenting then becomes a PART time job. I stand by my advice. If you can stay home with your baby... do it.

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Specializes in cardiac/education.
20 hours ago, Been there,done that said:

Certainly. But parenting then becomes a PART time job. I stand by my advice. If you can stay home with your baby... do it.

Better advice then might be, "if you WANT to stay home with your baby....do it". If I could swing it financially, and my heart said do it, AND it was COVID times, no way is my baby going to daycare as a brand new infant. ? 

What did you decide, OP? 

Of course I did stay home with my babies, did make that sacrifice, and now they are pre-teens with huge attitudes. LOL! 

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On 2/5/2021 at 9:20 AM, Curious1alwys said:

Better advice then might be, "if you WANT to stay home with your baby....do it". If I could swing it financially, and my heart said do it, AND it was COVID times, no way is my baby going to daycare as a brand new infant. ? 

What did you decide, OP? 

Of course I did stay home with my babies, did make that sacrifice, and now they are pre-teens with huge attitudes. LOL! 

I ended up staying home with my son. He is 7 months now. It’s definitely been hard on my sanity and I am trying to figure out how to do some per diem work while still breast feeding- I made the mistake of never getting my son used to a bottle so that makes it difficult. 

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