Hey friends,
I am applying next spring for MD and PA schools and my wife is pushing toward the PA route because of the time involved. We are planning on having kids around my 2nd year of med school (or last year of PA) and she is concerned I won’t have enough time to spend with the family. I do know it is a bigger time commitment, but I still feel it is worth it.
Has anyone had any experience with balancing wives and babies and med school all at the same time? Or if this same concern was raised how did you respond?
Thanks
Depends on how motivated you are and what the family dynamic will be —
Some of my younger colleagues would have their wives/kiddos bring them dinner when they were on call and could get time to eat a “formal” meal – rather than stuffing a sandwich in your mouth between patients;
Personally, I was on a mission – my situation, at least in my mind, was “either do this or don’t come home – there’ll be nothing left to come back to” — I could not afford to fail at my age/situation in life – my wife is a strong lady who managed a house, worked full time, kept the kiddos going to their activities and still had time for me on the weekends when I could come home…I arrived early Friday night and headed out Sunday evening — went to soccer games and dozed/studied in the camp chair, went to cheerleading events, cooked Daddy breakfasts on Saturday, went to movies/had a nice dinner on Saturday night, did church Sunday AM and lunch and went out the door at 4PM – did my crying on the way back to school, bitched about how much it sucked, then did my grocery shopping and racked out for another week of med school…wash, rinse, repeat x 3 years;
You can do it – when the kids are small, it’s a whole lot easier – you don’t have school events to go to, camps to plan for, etc. They are transportable and you’re not concerned about what the local schools are like in the med school/residency area — I would actually advise waiting until your late 3rd year/early 4th year to have a kiddo – 4th year is pretty chill and you can schedule your away rotations and make sure she has help available – that puts the kiddos at home through residency unless you go surgical specialty and you don’t have to be concerned about schools – once you’re out, you can afford to pay for private schools if you need to –
The first 2 years are a lot of studying – you should plan on spending at least 40-60 hours a week studying/going to class (depends on how you learn and how good your premed prep was) – You will need to pull about 4-5 hours each day on the weekends but you can do that before everyone gets up and after they go to bed – I would try to take 1 24 hour period off (like Saturday from 1pm to Sunday 1pm) to give your brain a break… Med school is about repetition of the high points with understanding of critical key factors – you DO NOT need to know EVERYTHING – as I’ve said elsewhere, use First Aid for a guide as to what’s important and flesh out the details — study smart, not hard – it’s not about volume (as I learned too late) it’s about content — DO NOT TRY TO DO ALL THE ASSIGNED READING – unless you just learn that way and are a speed reader —
Again, your mileage may vary, no warranties expressed or implied…this advice is worth what it cost you…nothing…
Check out my blog, I talk a lot about medical school with a family. The link is in my signature Down below