Eves or Day/Night???

Im married with a 3 year old and a 7 month old and was just offered a .7 evening position and my husband is panicking about never being together as a family. He really wants me to ask for a day/night rotation so im home in the evening with the family but everyone I have talked to about the day/night rotation says its awful and not to do it and that the eve position will be MUCH better. Ive never worked nights and i think it would be awful but my husband is really pushing! Id like any insight from nurses that have families and what shift might be better. Thanks!
I started out on evenings, 32 hours/week when I went back to work after having my son. It was horrible. I was exhausted all the time, never saw my husband and we ended up in counseling because of it. He works M-F 8-5 so it definitely took away from family time. I work 7a-7p now and find it much easier to balance work/life. What is your childcare situation? Are there any available positions for days? I'm not familiar with the day/night rotation that you're speaking of.... what is it all about?

I used to work 2-1030, it was also a .7. With school age kids it was awful, I felt like I never saw the kids and it was terrible. I of course missed my husband also, but it was not seeing my kids that KILLED me. With young kids if you can find a babysitter for a couple of hours per day it will save you on childcare, assuming your husband works a day job, plus you won't have to adjust back to a day schedule when you work nights. By the time your kids are in school you should be able to transfer to a day position (hopefully).

it would be f/s/sun nights and then 4 day shifts during the week. everyone says its awful so im scared to do it but i can see my husbands point of view also

my goal is to get onto day shift when the kids get into school but right now I would be home with them until 2ish and then my husband would get home around 6. im not sure i could function doing a day/night rotation but my husband is just not getting the logic behind it

I think everyone's situation is different. I work 1900-0630 three days a week. I am a wife and mother to three teenagers. Me working NOC shift works for us, partly because of the age of my kids. My teenagers (19,17,14) have their own lives, college/highschool classes and activities. The best part of me working is nights is that there is ALWAYS a parent home.As far as my relationship with my husband goes, its great. He is an early to bed kind of guy anyway and is asleep by 2100. Sometimes if he is working on a project that has overtime he works 0600-1800 so I may go three days without seeing him, but then I have four days off to reconnect with my family.Also, I am a trainer on my unit and nights is a great place to learn without managers, administration (too much) family around. It is invaluable experience. I would suggest maybe giving it a try?

Quote from annag23it would be f/s/sun nights and then 4 day shifts during the week. everyone says its awful so im scared to do it but i can see my husbands point of view also

As a new grad, I worked 0.8, PM/noc rotation. The shift changed very week--1 week PMs, 1 week nocs, etc. It was HORRIBLE. I don't like rotating myself anyway--I'd rather work straight nocs. But changing shifts every week was so hard. Where I work now, rotating shifts change monthly. So if you did the rotation, you'd be on nights on your weekend and PMs during the week? So if it's your weekend to work, you'l work both shifts in the span of one week? It's absolute havoc on the body. I can't stress enough the importance of NOT switching shifts too often. Straight evenings is tough for family life, if your husband works typical office hours. Personally I'd never do eves with kids in school if I had to work FT. Right now I'm half time straight PMs, and for us it's working better than nocs did becuase of sleeping at a somewhat normal time.Clear as mud? Both options have their benefits and difficulties, and every family is different.