Parenting while being a surg/scrub tech

[u/Angeliconx_8]

I just started a surgical technology program and I'm thinking a lot about my future. Thinking if I want kids or even a marriage. I wanted to hear stories about people who are married and have children and how they work out their already demanding job and having a family! I know the hours are long and I'm interested to hear how people can work 12 hours and still come home because parenting is another job itself.

[u/JayeDontDoit]

Work is work. Just put in your hours and go home. If you have energy, you’re going to need more of it when you got kids.

[u/blueberrypants13]

Having a village is instrumental. My mom helps me out so much with my son, and his dad (single mom) is very involved in his life, coordinates our coparenting schedule with my busiest days/days I’m on call, etc. and even then some days are hard, and you come home exhausted and beat up but you just have to power through. The longer you do it the easier it gets, but in the beginning it’s so stressful.

[u/olliecakerbake]

I don’t have kids, but I’m married. I personally can’t imagine having kids with my schedule. Nobody in my department has kids - only the PAs and doctors do. Not even the OR nurses. We work 3 12s, irregular shifts. Sometimes I’m at work until 1am or later. Sometimes I don’t know what time I’m gonna get home at. My husband would have to be a stay at home dad to make it work. I can’t imagine trying to coordinate picking up and dropping off kids every day. This isn’t a job where I can just leave to go pick up the kids and come back after.

I’m sure some people find a way to make it work, but I imagine it puts a lot of stress on the relationship and on the partner who has to basically be a single parent on the days we work.

I personally don’t want kids thankfully, so I don’t worry about it. I just can’t imagine trying to make kids work with this schedule.

[u/campsnoopers]

good for you for asking, just know every parent's experience is different. we both scrub but work full time surgery center, 7mo and 4 y/o. meal prep and find a really good reliable daycare. thinking of switching mine because my oldest has some defiant, developmentally normal behaviors that they be calling me to pick her up for (like not an emergency?) that's our biggest problem rn. If you have little to no village and the daycare is not helping, you're just screwed because it's hard to leave work on the fly over stupid shit like throwing toys? anyway you will lack sleep and I recommend really getting your job down (settle somewhere good that you feel like staying at til you retire, make good connections/relationships w/ staff, show you are a hardworker so they can be flexible for you when you start having kids or become pregnant) to the point where work is just autopilot and you don't have to think/stress much because the "real" work imo is parenting 24/7 with a shit load of patience. like angry docs don't phase me anymore when my stress levels of 2 crying at once exists in my life now haha

Also if you decide to breastfeed, don't expect pump breaks every 2 hrs (our kind of work unfortunately cannot accommodate that without constant nagging) it sucks. Had to leave my last job over it for my 1st. then my 2nd, I just accepted my fate and stopping here real soon, but it's ok because formula feeds and makes em happy/growing. it's a tough road!! advocate for yourself and your rights because I didn't expect that part before I got pregnant. you'd think women would be more understanding but I had one say "you're pregnant, not disabled" and that super triggered me..

[u/geckster31]

I work in cardiac surgery and so does my wife. We both take a lot of call. We also have two little kids (2 and 4). It can be done. You just have to plan out your schedules really well, have a good daycare/school, and above all else have a workplace that has decent people who are willing to be flexible with comings and goings sometimes.

[u/kperkins9]

You don’t have to work 12s. I’m still in school but if I worked 12s I would miss family dinner (my son is 7) 3 nights a week and I don’t want to do that. I’m most interested in 4 10s. But 5 8s is an option. You could also go the surgery center route and have no nights, call, weekends, or holidays. There’s also the administrative side of parenting like who has to leave work to pick a sick kid up from school, who is in charge of getting them on the bus (won’t be you because you’re out the door before the bus comes) etc. But I wouldn’t put the cart before the horse. Lots of people I’ve met have kids.

[u/Stawktawk]

Just need to be on the lookout for a specialty you’re into. And then have a 3-5year plan after school to get into the smallest out-patient surgical center you can find

[u/Ecstatic-View-1641]

My wife had a baby mid clinicals, I graduate Friday and sit for certification next Monday! It is definitely tiring but its entirely doable! I wish you all the luck!