PhD Mum

I’ve lost count of the number of times someone said to me “I just don’t know how you manage to do a PhD and raise a child” during my studies.  And it made me realise that, perhaps from the outside looking in to my life, it did look challenging. I wanted to write this post for anyone who might be thinking of studying, whatever the course. To discuss the multitasking of child rearing and meeting deadlines. The majority of challenges of any course [be it undergraduate, accountancy, PhD etc.] are the same for most parents. If it’s not about the money side of doing the course, it will be about whether or not you can fit it all in and meet the course deadlines. The unsurprising underlying truth of this multitasking challenge is that it is difficult. It is difficult logistically, it is difficult financially, and it is difficult psychologically – particularly if your studying is seen as a “hobby” (as mine was by my family) and if you don’t get a weekly/monthly pay slip for ...

"You see us as you want to see us—in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain...and an athlete...and a basket case...a princess...and a criminal. Does that answer your question?" (The Breakfast Club) When I was 16 I was doing my A-levels. One of the courses I chose was sociology (I chose this course because it was not forced on me at GCSE, by way of protest and rebellion). This course had such an impact on me in ways I am only really starting to understand now. During the course, I was repeatedly told that people from broken homes and/or from working class families were destined to be criminals, to create a broken home themselves in the future, and/or become mentally ill. Being someone from a recently broken home and very much working class, I felt that the world was setting the bar for me. That it was telling me I didn’t deserve and shouldn’t expect anything more. And I think this idea was ...