Aisling
Life for a woman as a paeditrician?
I would like to be a doctor...and i think possibly specifically for kids. However I know that I also want to be a mother and a family outside of work. Ive heard that medicine is a life, not a job. Is this true? Am I setting myself up to not have a life? #doctor #pediatrics #mother
1 answer
Carol Plotsky
Carol’s Answer
Being a doctor is a profession. Like all jobs it is what you make of it. I have worked full time (3 to 4 days a week) and raised a family of two children. My husband is also a physician. We have had help in the house when the children were young and this certainly helped - allowing me and my husband to come and go as needed. But overall we have been active participants in our children's lives - attending school functions, coaching soccer, driving car pools etc. We have also been full time doctors with attention to the needs of our patients. There have been difficult times such as when the children were sick but generally it worked well.
Many people make their job their life. This is a personal choice and not a requirement to be successful. Both my husband and myself run successful practices, are involved in the community and local hospital and have raised to independent successful children.