Balancing Children/Family and Nursing School (RN)

00:01 All right, friends, I have bad news.

00:03 It's just what you want to hear when you start a video.

00:05 We have spent a lot of time in this section talking about how to make life less chaotic and stressful while in nursing school, to keep the "nursing school is hard" from winning the battle here.

00:16 And I have a suspicion that some of you are going to think, oh, perfect, a checklist.

00:22 Once I follow all of this advice, I will elevate to a magical unicorn human, the type of human who is able to achieve the mystical work/schedule/school/life balance. Are you ready to brace for a new reality here? Because there is no work/life/school balance when you are in school.

00:38 Maybe in all of life, I'm still figuring that out.

00:41 But this is an existential problem for another time.

00:43 When you are in nursing school, it is hard.

00:46 You are busy. If you are adding a job in the mix, you are even busier.

00:50 I think we've driven that point home now and just like we prioritized how to get tasks done and how to take care of our bodies, we need to prioritize our lives outside of school for just a minute, so we set ourselves up for success and with reasonable expectations.

01:06 If I was a fancier human, I would probably insert a quote here that I'm sure someone has made about being able to, like, do everything or do a few things well.

01:14 And it's going to be tempting to want to do all of the things.

01:18 But, while you are in nursing school, I want you to pick your priorities and I want you to pick those carefully and just focus on them and do those really, really well.

01:29 What is the most important thing to you? Pick one, maybe two things.

01:33 I know that's hard, but seriously, one or two, if you have a family, they're probably your thing. Maybe you have a hobby.

01:39 Maybe it's your job.

01:40 Maybe it's your dog. Whatever it is, think of your one or two most important things and, other, you're going to have school.

01:48 And other than that, think about what is going to do.

01:51 .. What you can pick is going to make you feel really fulfilled in the different areas of your life. And then I want you to picture your life as a pie, okay? Nursing school, it gets half the pie immediately, maybe more like two thirds.

02:04 It's very greedy. If you have a job, they get a chunk of the pie.

02:08 Whatever else your next 1 to 2 priorities are, they get the rest of the pie. Use your best friend, the planner, to figure out what you can do every day to make sure you have enough time for those other priorities.

02:21 And then, here's the really hard part, you need to let the rest.

02:25 .. You just need to let it go.

02:27 Your house will probably be messy.

02:29 You may not have the most balanced diet.

02:32 Remember my previous diet, PB and J? Your life will not look like Instagram, and it's absolutely going to suck to not be able to do it all. It'll be a learning curve, but you need to let some things go because you cannot do it all. And if you try to do it all, you won't do anything well.

02:49 And once again, I have walked that path, and it is scattered and leaves you feeling spread so thin and really aimless and like you haven't accomplished anything. So you're going to want to delegate what you can to others if that's an option available to you.

03:03 If you are stressed about the mess, buy a huge plan, hide things behind it.

03:07 Use paper plates if you can't stand dishes and don't have time to keep things clean.

03:12 Delegate and reorganize to make your life work for you.

03:15 And remember that this is temporary.

03:17 You will not always have to hide things behind your plants and to make these sacrifices and choices.

03:23 This is not forever.

03:24 You can do the hard things and this hard thing will end.

03:27 You are enough.

03:29 Even if your house is a mess.

03:30 And you deserve rest and time to spend doing things that you actually love even if they aren't stereotypically productive.

03:37 And you're not alone, your classmates are not judging you either, no matter how you feel.

03:41 I promise. Now onto a slightly different topic.

03:45 Whose nursing school convinced them that their relationship would fail and light up in flames during nursing school? Yeah, mine too.

03:56 See you in the next module, so we can discuss some relationship tips.

04:00 So maybe yours can be okay.

04:02 Because it can be okay, I promise.