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I am a new member and am still contemplating DO or PA school.
I am a non-traditional student (I'm a Junior undergrad with 85 credits meaning I am almost a Senior.) My GPA is pretty good (3.7 overall and in science.) I'm doing volunteer work in the hospital (Cath lab and I'm going to train for the OR next week .)
This is going to sound absurd to some of you, but, up until now, I have coordinated my school and volunteer schedule with my children's school schedule. I waited to go back to college until my youngest went to school.
If I go to PA school, I will start classes in th summer when my kids have vacation. If I go to DO school, I will not need to worry about this until I start my clinical rotations.
My youngest will be 10 if I choose PA school and 12 if I choose DO school. She will be 10 when I start DO school and I will be commuting 45 minutes to one hour away. I may need AM childcare for her. I have never used child care and am at a complete loss about this. What is appropriate for an older child? What do you do when the kids are old enough to watch themselves but you don't want to leave them alone all day and you don't want them to be deprived of normal summertime activities (like going to the pool,) because they're essentially latch key kids.
I'm a current med student with two children. My children are younger than yours and so I can't really give you any advice concerning daycare options for older children. I think that is just something you will have to attack when you get there.
Right now the important part is for you to decide which field you prefer. I would definitely not use your children's schedule as a reason to pick your field. Do as much shadowing as you can, talk to both PA's and physicians, decide which field you want to go into based on which field you prefer.
Obviously the medical school route is a longer one and not quite as family friendly. Consider that when you decide your field, but don't make it your main concern.
I used to work at a daycare and so I know that some of them offer before school and after school options as well as summer care for children up to 6th grade (maybe longer, the one I worked at was till 6th grade). The before/after school portion was generally cheaper than regular daycare and the summer program included fun activities like swimming, the zoo, etc.
I don't know how PA schools work, and every medical school program is different, but my school allows for some flexibility in daily scheduling. I don't usually go to class in the morning, and only have afternoon activities 2-3 times per week. My children go to daycare during the day, but if they were old enough to keep themself busy, (instead of needing my attention every 5-10 minutes) then I wouldn't hesitate to keep them home with me during the times they're not in school.