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 ...

If you are thinking about or are returning to education after time away, then this is the post for you. PhD Mum Returning to education as a mum is a hard decision and there are a lot of things to consider; can I really afford it? Can I fit it in with my children? Am I clever enough to do it? Am I too old? When I was on maternity leave, I began to question everything I thought I was. I felt my brain turned to mush because my sole reason for waking up was to feed and change my son. I returned to the PhD after 6 months of maternity leave. In pretty much every way, my experience of the PhD mum journey has been amazing – that’s not to say it hasn’t been challenging – but I have experienced the support of a fantastic supervisory team, the working hours were extremely flexible, and my partner was very understanding. I think if one of these three things were not in place, then my experience would have been something completely different.   Here are my five p...

(within health/psychology) I wish someone had told me this when I first started my PhD. The key to a successful research piece: simplicity. The most basic and most often forgotten point of a study, at any level, is to have a very clear and succinct question(s) in mind that you want to answer. It sounds so straight forward and obvious doesn’t it. But it is amazing how, on a 3 to 5 year journey, you can lose sight of what your research aim is.  "If you can't describe a topic in simple terms, you don't understand it ." (Einstein)  Remember, within your study, you are not going to solve the world's problems.  I started wanting to improve end of life care for all; which in hindsight was very noble of me but completely impractical! In pragmatic terms, you have a time frame within which you need to do the study and present the results - save complexity for the reasons why you should definitely get a post doctorate post. This simplicity then pays off in dif...

The short answer is YES, you can! I know so many fabulous people that balance study and parenthood like absolute legends. Don't get me wrong, it is not an easy journey. But it is completely do-able! It's mainly about deciding what works for you and your family. Think of the study as a job, and you will almost certainly pass.  If you are considering a PhD, I thought it might be helpful to describe what my worries were before I started. They can be broadly grouped within 3 domains: work/life balance, money, value. Work Life balance: do I have time for a PhD? You will find there are times when you have to focus on studying (e.g. If you are recruiting or running experiments) and have to be in the office/lab. There are other times that are much more flexible. For this reason you can find you can work in the office less frequently than a standard 9-5 job (and a PhD is a job) -   @mother_pukka  talks about "flex appeal", and a PhD is the ultimate in this. It is ...