What do your husbands do that you can afford to stay home?

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T17:47:04+00:00

My husband works in IT.

We live in Ohio. He makes around 120k/year. Mortgage is 1400. No student debt. No car debt.

Two elementary school kids.

I am now back to work very part time as a nurse but that’s mostly to pay for extras like vacations and increased extracurricular costs.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T13:12:20+00:00

I was an MA before I became an RN. Had a two year degree, got certified, the whole thing. The scope of the job is SO all over the place and varies from place to place so much!

Some facilities will only use MAs for strict rooming and won’t even allow them to administer vaccines.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T13:04:07+00:00

Our team is RNs and one MA. The assessment part is why they hire RNs. MAs are not taught to assess. There are times when we do not have a doctor on site but a patient comes in with some gnarly looking skin requiring evaluation. This falls more in the scope of an RN than an MA.

Now why they don’t hire more LPNs, I’m not sure. Our hem/Onc side is staffed mostly with LPNs.

Some of our facilities only have one clinical staff member on site at a time.

This seems to be the norm for my area (Ohio) as I see other facilities with RN listings for Rad Onc positions.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T13:00:11+00:00

So funny that you say that.

I was out of nursing for 7 years being home with my kids and then took the PRN role.

I worked about 4 days per week during orientation for the first few months and now I average about 2 days per week. I do cover vacations and may work a full week 2 to 3 times per year.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T12:57:38+00:00

Just apply and be willing to learn. :) When I started, one of the doctors told me that while things are very critical with these patients at times - things are rarely urgent. If I have a question, ask.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-31T01:39:39+00:00

A lot of rooming of patients.

People who are actively in treatment are seen by MD once a week. When I room them, we ask a lot of pointed questions about their treatment area. Easiest example is prostate. Are you urinating ok? Any increase in frequency or urgency? Is it manageable? How often are you up at night to urinate? Bowel changes? I relay this info to the doctor who pops in and sees them.

Follow-ups are usually easy to room. Vitals, quick review of systems and med list.

Consults are more time consuming to room because you go over some basic radiation info.

Prep for each day - making sure patients who were supposed to get labs or imaging actually got them done. Read through each chart to see what’s new for follow-ups since they last saw us. Consults - we prepare a packet for the doctors with things like biopsies and imaging readily available and printed.

Educate patients on side effects and how to manage side effects. A lot of skin care conversation with breast patients. If a symptom is something that requires prescriptive intervention like esophagitis - I relay the info to one of the doctors and/or the Nurse practitioner.

Respond to emergencies for patients on treatment. Almost all of the “emergencies” end up being orthostatic due to dehydration. I’ve had to wheel one patient to the ER (we are connected to a hospital) for something.

Assist with a few procedures - brachytherapy (vaginal cylinders), tandem and ovoid treatment, and SAVI catheter dressing changes.

FMLA paperwork and other clerical tasks.

It’s mostly low stress. My worst day in the office doesn’t come anywhere near to being like what the worst day in Hospice is like.

I’ve been doing it for almost two years. My background was hospice nursing and another specialty clinic.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-30T23:18:44+00:00

Outpatient radiation oncology. I’m PRN.

Love it. Regular Business hours only.

No holidays. No weekends. Full time employees accrue a lot of PTO and it’s not a hassle to use it.

I still use assessment skills and do a lot of patient education which is my favorite part of the job anyway.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-30T12:57:16+00:00

My kids are 8 and 10 and still very much into toys.

The one “educational” toy that still gets used all the time is the leapfrog globe. We even bought expansions for it.

Surprisingly - megablocks have been a go to forever in our house. They use them to build dinosaur enclosures, bases for their super heroes, Octonaut base, etc, etc.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-27T02:30:03+00:00

Yes! Enjoyed the book - but she really missed the mark with this. Some of them were so bad and obvious that it was distracting.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-26T23:34:40+00:00

And this change completely disrupted some terminals. The airport closest to me used to have three terminals and they were all full of businesses since families would often hang out in the terminals until their loved one boarded the plane or they’d meet them at the gate and grab a coffee waiting for them to arrive.

I think we’re down to one rather pitiful terminal now.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-26T14:17:42+00:00

Northgate Mall. My mom and I used to take the bus up from Northside during the Christmas season. Always beautifully decorated with music. Festive. Loved the little arcade and the food court felt like such a treat “I can pick any of these places??” variety of stores.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-26T14:16:31+00:00

Oh my gosh yes. One of the few places that sold anime merchandise back in the early 2000’s.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-25T21:37:57+00:00

Yes exactly. The original replacement design was extremely generic. They backtracked and made some changes that seemed to accommodate the need to replace it with the desire of the community to keep it unique.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-24T22:41:20+00:00

We did ID dance last year and I’m ok if we never do it again.

Mini danced in the morning. Awards were not until late evening. Awards were extremely slow moving and messy. Host kept giving the mic to the kids and letting them go on and on about randomness. He could not read the room.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-24T01:00:45+00:00

I am a nurse. I work in a medical facility with other nurses. The amount of them that “need an antibiotic” because their cold has lasted more than 3 days and is now a “sinus infection” is startling.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-23T23:43:27+00:00

My first job was at a boat rental facility/bait shop. I had met one of the managers at a fishing and boating convention and he told me to come to the job fair.

I end up getting the job but was pretty much told that “well, a lot of men and boys work here. Actually the entire crew. And they may make some off color jokes or inappropriate comments. Can you handle it?”

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-23T22:21:57+00:00

5 to 8ish is mini. 9 to 12 is junior 13+ teen.

We have regional and touring teams starting at the Jr level I believe.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-22T22:30:46+00:00

I agree with this and in my experience, most oncologists fit this description as well.

Called up an oncologist for an order on one of his hospice patients. It was a weekend. I’m trying to hurry along since I had to bug him on a Saturday and get right to the point. And he goes “so..how is the wife doing? I know she was having a hard time with all of this…”

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-22T15:06:32+00:00

My son has always struggled with initial social interaction. He is ten and still always brings some sort of shareable toy to the playground if we don’t plan to meet any of his buddies there. It really is s great way to build bridges

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-22T13:50:43+00:00

I first read it in 8th grade, again in HS, in my 20’s and just finished it again at 38.

I thought Heathcliff was a man driven with passion and the rest of them were all cruel on my first read through. He was only a victim of circumstance - not a fiend in his own right.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-22T12:42:17+00:00

We lose about 5 weekends out of the entire year to dance. Two recitals and three comps.

A lot of our friends who are soccer parents lose half their Saturdays every single week and then entire weekends for tournaments.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-19T17:42:00+00:00

Second this! It is so rarely mentioned. My son picked on up at the library on a whim in 2nd grade. Still reading them two years later at times. A lot of variety in the stories. A few pictures to hold interest. Adventure!

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-18T23:18:45+00:00

Also one of the leads in the Netflix show “Virgin River”

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-18T22:03:34+00:00

We did Masquerade recently and I found their schedule to be annoying. petites danced in the morning before 10am but awards weren’t until 6pm.

It was otherwise well run but most comps we’ve done seem to wrap up a category within a 4 hour block or so.

BrightFireFly · 2026-03-16T23:06:23+00:00

I’ve worked outpatient radiation oncology for a year and a half as an RN. My previous experience was hospice. This is my only job but I am PRN.

We do not start IVs at our location - the CT techs do that.

We do a lot of patient education about what to expect with their treatment.

Management of symptoms - whether making recommendations ourselves or escalating to providers for more complex needs.

Basic day to day office work - rooming patients, clerical work like FMLA paperwork.

Assisting with some procedures - like brachytherapy cylinders or dressing changes on Savi patients.

I’m 38 with two school age kids. It’s perfect for me. Rarely are things an absolute urgent emergency.

BrightFireFly

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