Well, Mouse_Maven, I don’t know for sure how it will go, but I’m going to finish my English degree even though I will have the baby. We’re already working out my fall/spring schedule with work and school so that we save a little on child care. I figure I’m this close now, I better finish (20 classes…and I have 2 quarters left till the baby is born…)
Maybe we’ll both do good…I hope so.
I have thought about working a year before starting my Master’s Program, but I don’t think I will wait, at least not much more than 6 months (if I graduate on time…at the end of Fall)
A few years ago, my son’s daycare was shut down for a couple of weeks because of mold infestation. My options were to find another daycare center (not really an option because the other centers were already full), bring him to class, or stay home and miss the lectures that I had paid for. Fortunately, my sister-in-law was visiting and babysat him, so it became a non-issue.
My further experience is that some classes are entirely appropriate for young kids; I had a class that involved field trips, and my prof made it clear that my son was welcome on those trips because he might learn something. OTOH, lecture classes aren’t appropriate places for him and I’ve resisted bringing him to those even though I’ve taken classes that he would’ve enjoyed.
To the OP: It can be done with sufficient support (thank God for family!) and good time-management skills. You might also find out if there’s a non-traditional students organization on campus that you can rely on for emotional support; talking to other people in the same situation to find out how they do things is a big help. Finally, if you need to, find out about campus resources like on-campus daycare and the counseling center.
I also want to say that when I got my BA in 2005, my son was the proudest one there! And this May, when I graduate with my master’s, I’m making it a point to have him be one of the people hooding me. Lord knows he’s earned that right.
I work full time and I’m also currently going to college for a degree in Electrical Engineering. I have two toddlers, one who turned 4 yesterday and one who turned 3 last Sunday. I already have Bachelors degrees in English and Theatre.
My schedule is very full. But somehow, even with the calendar being crammed, I still manage to fit it all in. The trick, for me, is having a wonderful, supportive spouse. I know for a fact that if he didn’t support my doing this 100%, I’d never be able to pull it off.
We are lucky, however, in that my job is enough so that he can stay home with the girls. He understands my need to study, that I sometimes get stressed before tests, etc. And he keeps telling me that I’m doing the right thing, that my hard work is paying off, and that he’ll pick up the slack when needed.
It is our hope that this new degree will help us along our path. I’ve been taking classes in one form or another pretty much since I met him. My girls love to come see what Mommy is studying. It was pretty funny to have them checking out my calculus homework and declaring it wasn’t math because there were symbols and not numbers. Both of them are psyched for school themselves, and one attends a pre-school that she can’t get enough of.
There are ways to work things out if you want it bad enough. But for me, having the support at home is the key.
Oh… And one other thing to mention… My mom got her Associates in Accounting one class at a time when I was young. Took her many, many years to get it, too. I was so proud of her. She worked so hard to juggle everything and on the day she got her diploma, I was there to give her a standing ovation.
Yep, I’m about 5 or 6 classes away: three upper-division biology courses, a chemistry lab and a physic class with lab (I fear this one the most).
My usual incompetence kept me from taking classes this semester. (The blizzard blitz kept my already rarely-seen boss away from the lab, so my Employee Tuition Waiver paperwork was late. Also, I wanted to take the 5-credit hour Physics class - to get it over with - and turns out that I was only allowed 3 credits. Didn’t have the money to cover the other 2 credits and my alternative classes were full. sigh)
The Mouseling is due in September. If I’m still working for the University this summer (and there’s no gaurantee of that), I’ll try to take a 3 credit hour class this coming summer. Mouse_Spouse can work from home, so we have been discussing him staying with the F1 while I go to class two days a week next year.
Right now I’m really frustrated with the U. Any search on our system for childcare or maternity leave brings up nothing. My lab is orphaned, so we have no adminstrative support to help me navigate the system. I better stop whining. . .
I had a three year old and a newborn the day I graduated. it was a tough haul but it helped that Mr. Woodhouse was going through the same thing with me. We attended a small state university with a unusually large percentage of non traditional students (eg. anyone over the age of 25 or married, so lots of parents.) It felt like that at least half the other students in my classes had kids and knew what it was like. My professors understood and were really compassionate because so many of their students had simmilar problems.
I never had to take a kid to class with me, but I do remember a few kids coming once in a while. Not one ever caused a problem, but I know that was a stipulation for the child being in class in the first place.
By the time I was nearing the end, I was feeling pretty passive about it. That last semester was the worst, especially when I had to walk half a mile to and from class at seven months pregnant. (dang, I was healthy, lol!) I wouldn’t trade it in though. It was very much worth it to push through and get the degree. Good luck with yours.
My mom was in school when I was young, and it was one of the best experiences for me.
I helped her study for her tests, which was a help to her, and I learned a lot on the way even though I was only in pre-school. She always tried to bring me to one or two of each of her classes, on interesting days (with the prof’s permission, of course) so I could learn what sort of things I was interested in. Most of all, I grew up with academics- reading, studying, thinking- as an everyday part of life and gew to value education. Frankly I don’t know that I’d be where I am in life without that experience.
