Anyone do college with kids?

lisar wrote: So did anyone do college with kids and full time job? If not you might still be able to help me out. I stay stressed out school work, work, kids, hubby, dinner, cleaning, laundry etc... I have so much trouble keeping up with it all.

Anyone have any ideas on how I could possibly manage it all a little better. I can not drop my class load because I am on a grant and if I drop below so many hours then I will loose it and I dont want that to happen.

Any suggestions would be great.

moped replied: I can't imagine how crazy it must be, I work full time and have 2 kids, but couldn't do college as well!

My only thought is that sometimes things won't get done. The more important things are your family.....the rest will have to wait

Also maybe you could set up a schedule with Gene to help with the weekly cleaning and laundry or whatever.......mine would never be able to but maybe yours would!

msoulz replied:
Ditto. Lower your standards to save your sanity. And insist on more help! And know you are totally respected for doing what you are doing!!!!

coasterqueen replied:
That's about all I'd say too. I have not gone through college with kids, but I worked full time and went to college for 10 years. I finished up when I was 6 months pregnant with Kylie and I did a lot of traveling 2 hours away to take 3 day courses to get done in that time. It's HARD working full-time and going to college, so I can't imagine doing it with kids. Just let things go, if the family doesn't understand.......who cares. That's my viewpoint.

I think when you work full-time and are trying to go to school, and add in kids, too, you are going to have to take a LOT less hours at a time. It took me 10 years because it was too much to work full-time AND go to college, so I could only take a class or two each semester. If you are taking any more than that, IMO, with kids, you are short changing everyone, the kids most of all, IMO, because I know how much time I spent taking 2 classes, working full time and not having kids. If I did even 2 classes, worked full time and had kids, the kids would get less of my attention...not good.

luvbug00 replied: I finished HS when mya was 2 until 3. With a job.
No fun. But possible. Just had to let go of some things. quick easy dinners made over the weekend and stored for the week. Less me time for sure and studied whenever there was free time. Take the time you need, your girls are older then mya was and can do their homework while you do yours. make it family quiet time maybe

lisar replied: I take all of my classes online except for math. I do most of my school work after the girls are in bed, but it is still to much for me to keep up with it. As for DH helping, well thats a joke and he will say all day long he supports me, but when it comes to helping me he doesnt and he wont. I work till 6pm everynight so by the time I get home from work at 6:30 I clean, cook, bathe the kids do their homework and its bed time. That is the daily schedule, after they go to bed I try and do my school work but then the laundry and everything else has to be done. I NEVER do school work on Sunday unless its after the kids are in bed, that is my one day I try to never do any work.
I cant work on my homework while the girls do theirs, Raygen needs WAY to much attention for it.

I might work out a written schedule to try and stick with.

As for the cheap easy meals, its hard cause Raygen has high cholestrol now so I gotta make sure she eats good. We do eat salads now and those are QUICK AND EASY.

coasterqueen replied:
Sounds like my schedule , except after the kids go to bed I only have time to clean before MY bedtime. So I don't envy you trying to add homework in there as well. I'm not sure what to tell you, if your husband won't support/help you physically, let it all go. He'll eventually understand and possibly physically support you then. The kids aren't going to die if your house isn't spic and span. Laundry? Well, throw a load in, do your other routine stuff, then on the weekends save all the laundry that needs folding/put away and have the kids help you. It's what I have to do. I can have 10 loads of laundry sitting there ready to fold and put away come every weekend. When a mother works, you have no choice but to sacrifice things like a clean house and laundry all done all the time. Obviously we can't sacrifice cooking dinner and spending time with our children, but once they are in bed.......which if your house is anything like mine I don't have much time at all between the time the girls go to bed and my bed time. There isn't an option to stay up later for me. If I stay up too late being at work the next day is HE** when you are tired. So I have to go to bed at a roundabout time every night, no matter what.

Again, I don't have a solution for you. I wish I did. It is SO hard working full-time and trying to be a mother/wife at the same time. It's hard to juggle your time to give your job the time it needs so you don't get fired , give your husband the time he feels he deserves, give the kids the time they need, etc, etc, etc -- unfortunately it's always the mom/wife that gets shafted -- we never get any time for ourselves.

How many classes online are you taking? Online classes are IMO HARDER! And taking more than one or two of those is just too much. My husband, who is a straight A student -- he didn't do well on his online courses -- they are just harder because you don't have the resources you do when you go to class and sit and interact with an instructor.

lisar replied:
I take 4 classes a semseter. Which makes me a full time student. I do break them up though and take 2 8 weeks classes and 2 16 weeks classes. That way I only have 4 classes for a short amount of time.
I find online classes easier personally, mainly because I can do the work when I can and I am not stuck going to a class room setting every night of the week. Also ALL TEST are open book that way. LOL.

coasterqueen replied:
Your a goddess to me, because there is NO WAY I could handle full-time student, full-time work and children. I couldn't handle part-time student, full time work.

lisar replied:
trust me, if I can do it ANYONE can do it. Its just alot of stress and alot of hard work. I look to the future when it will all pay off for me and I have my degree and much more money. Thats what keeps me going for now.

coasterqueen replied:
That's a good thing to keep going.

For me I had already been doing what I was doing for so long that by the time I got my degree, the degree really didn't matter financially, lol. It matters to me, though, which is what counts.

bluebear replied: I give credit to anybody that has kids and goes to school full time, AND works. I barely have time to do any assignments. This semester I'm repeating 2 classes for the second time, and I already had to drop one of them because I couldn't handle it with my job. Can't go to tutoring because I'm off campus. No motivation whatsoever in my other 2 classes, on academic probation, etc.. and working 34 hours a week. (Not posting this for a pity party.)

msoulz replied:
That makes sense - I know I was referring to the house cleaning and such. Sometimes we need to lower our standards on that type of thing to accomplish tough goals like school.

MommyToAshley replied: I didn't have kids when I was going to college, but at one point I worked two full time jobs (80 hours a week) plus got A's while going to college full time. I don't think I slept. Eventually, I got promoted at one job, only workd about 50-60 hours, but that was still a lot with going to school full time. I can't imagine throwing kids into the mix.

I agree with what others said, some things will have to slide sometimes, you can't be superwoman (although you are pretty close). I think your DH will really have to step up and help out. Sometimes men will say they support you but they need a little direction as to how... they need specifics. Maybe make a chart or list and hang it on the fridge. On certain days, he will need to take the kids to dinner (if he doesnt' cook) or help them with homework so you can do yours, or whatever it is that you need him to do. Just a thought.

lisar replied:
I told him lastnight that he had to cook dinner tonight. One problem he CANT COOK VERY WELL. So I made it easy I pulled out a whole ham and told him to cook that on the grill (its a small one) and I pulled out a box of mac and cheese and wrote a sticky note to cook brocolli and cheese the steam in the micro bags. So hopefully he wont mess it up.

MommyToAshley replied:

coasterqueen replied:
Do crockpot meals, too. Also, you can make things like lasagna up beforehand, freeze it, and all they have to do is thaw it, put in over and voila, done!

Dee Dee is right, they need direction, they need specifics. My husband is so supportive as long as I give him specifics on what he needs to do.