Balancing career and family

[drboris]

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Hi guys,

I want to know your opinions on this topic. Do any of you have spouses (or are in serious relationships with peeople) who are also going to be lawyers or doctors. Since these are both very demanding professions, I was wondering how you guys plan to balance family life with your career? Do you not plan on having kids for a long time? If anyone has been in or is going through this situation, please share your experiences.

Thanks

 

[jennie 21]

My fiance and I are both medical students, getting married in two weeks. He's interested in surgery, I'm interested in pediatrics or general internal medicine. We plan on waiting until after residency to have children. Once we have children, I will probably stay home with them till they're old enough for preschool or kindergarten (working one or two days a week in a free clinic to keep my skills up). Once they're in school I will go back to work full-time. That's how we plan to balance everything. It works for us because it's in line with our personalities and goals; as much as I love medicine, I also want to be around and available to my children. He's more ambitious and happy to support us, and happy that I want to be home with our kids when they're little because we both agree that one of us should be around. I think it would be much harder for us if we were both highly ambitious and career-oriented; luckily, that isn't the case. I don't feel that I'm "sacrificing" my career because this is what I truly want to do. I feel that I can still have a great career in medicine and make a contribution even if I'm not working the typical 60-80 hours a week that most doctors do. But I agree that balancing career and family can be a problem if both people are highly ambitious. Much as our situation might sound "sexist" to some people because I'm putting my family ahead of my career and planning to stay home or work part-time while my kids are young, I don't think it is sexist because this is what I want.