Want to be a stay at home mom before my first job!

[pacifyproblems]

Hello! I'm a junior in a BSN program. I will graduate in a year! Currently my partner and I are trying to plan when we want to conceive--and we want to start trying next winter, I think. Ideally, I would like to stay home with our baby for a couple of years before getting my first job. How detrimental would this be to my chances of getting a job if I passed the NCLEX, didn't work for a couple of years, but instead volunteered 4 hours a week or so?

I love nursing school, and can't wait to be a nurse, but I want the experience of being home with my child more than anything. I know I can't "have it all," but is there a way to almost have it all?

[elkpark]

How detrimental would this be to my chances of getting a job if I passed the NCLEX, didn't work for a couple of years, but instead volunteered 4 hours a week or so?

Extremely detrimental, unless the economy magically recovers and a whopping new nursing shortage develops during that time.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Unless something very unlikely happens, it will kill your chances of ever getting a good nursing job. You might be able to get something (a job most other nurses don't want) if you were take a refresher course before trying to enter the job market. No place good to work for wants to hire a nurse with a paper degree and license -- but who has lost whatever skills she developed in nursing school. In the current (and expected near future) job market, there are a lot of people out there with current knowledge and skill to choose from.

Either take a break from school now and resume your schooling when you are ready to resume your career. Or "suck it up" and work for a little while before you have a baby ... then keep your skills current by working part time (even VERY ocassionally) after the baby is born.

Don't throw your money, time, and energy on a nursing education that is going to get stale and out of date before you even try to use it. You need to make the transition from student to professional while your knowledge and skills are fresh.

[tippytootagon]

Best way to have it all - work and make your partner stay at home with the baby. (Hey, I'm a feminist and it is a possibility).

Otherwise, I would either suck it up and work with a newborn at home, or yes, put off having the baby for a year or two.

[pacifyproblems]

I wouldn't be opposed to having a baby a year or two later, but would taking time to stay at home for a year or two be better at that point? I don't want staying at home to ruin my career!

I am working very hard to get my degree. I intend to apply to graduate schools in the future. My GPA is 3.8. I want to be a nurse more than almost anything, but not more than an intimate year or two with my child!

So if I'm going to stay home, when should I do it?

[tryingtohaveitall]

For me the beauty of nursing is its flexibility. My name here "trying to have it all" is because I have been a mom, homeschooled my children, had a career, and gone to grad school. My two cents is to graduate and work for a few years. Find a place where they are willing to be flexible and you can cut down to a day or two a week.

[llg, PhD, RN]

You can be a terrific mom and have plenty of high-quality "mommy time" while you work a couple of days per month. You don't have to be "work free" to be a good mother.

Work for at least a year (preferably 2) to establish your nurisng skills. School alone is not enough. Then maintain those skills by working ocassionally when you have the baby (assuming you can financially afford to do that, of course.) If you work 1 shift per week, you will still have 6 whole days to be at home with the baby.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

The job market is brutal. If you take time off after graduation--even just a year--when you do reenter the job market you will be competing with other new grads whose skills are fresher, more current. Should an employer decide to hire a new grad, which new grad do you think they'll take the chance on--the fresh new grad or the stale you? Unless you can bring something exceptional to the bargaining table, it likely won't be you.

The one thing worse than being a new grad is being an old new grad :/

The best thing to do is exactly as llg suggested: after graduation, establish your skills and a good experience base. Then after you give birth return at least part-time to keep the skills current.

Of course, babies don't always follow our well-laid plans. If you decide to--or end up getting--pregnant while in school or right after graduation, work as far into the pregnancy as you can. Then return to work when you can.

You can "have it all." But not all the time, not always with everything, and not always right away. "Having it all" often takes a lot of hard work first.

Best of luck whatever you decide.