Mom juggles all
How do you juggle taking care of a family, pursuing a career and somehow managing to get an education?
I’m jumping into answering that question by returning to school after a 10-year hiatus. I am a 42-year-old divorced mother of two children, ages 17 and nine. On our plate we have private school, college applications for my son, swim team, football, Girl Scouts, work for me and now I’m going back to school. Have I totally lost my mind?
The week before school is due to start at the University of Nevada, Reno, I am in Seattle with my 17-year-old son on a college scouting trip. My financial aid hasn’t come through yet. My classes have been changed. I have deadlines for work and my little one needs school uniforms.
It’s going to be a fun year.
I think a lot of people are in a similar position to mine these days. The economy has forced changes in lifestyle and career choices. People are returning to school after their children leave the nest. Work demands new and evolving skills.
I am excited and nervous about the prospect of entering graduate school full-time this year. I have been accepted to the geography department’s Land Use Planning Policy Program and I am very excited about the opportunity. I’ve registered for four classes. So how on earth do I think I can pull this off? Same way I’ve done everything else in my life I guess—a little bit of determination and a lot of elbow grease.
I have it generally mapped out. I’ve changed careers for the duration of this adventure. I spent over 20 years working in the engineering and land development field. With the changes in the economy, I feel this change to environmental planning will benefit me and help my desire to change the world.
I’m teaching seminars on child and adult motivational techniques, and working on my first novel. Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment. I hope this will give me more free time to work on schoolwork and spend with the kids. I’ve decided my walk with my retrievers Jack and Esther is an essential part of starting my day. OK, so that’s my map.
Through this column, I invite you to follow my family and I on our ride through this next school year. Come along with us, while I work toward my goals, get my son admitted to college, fulfill my duties as Girl Scout Cookie Mom and if I’m lucky, find a day or two to just do nothing.
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on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 2:00 am and is filed under Perspectives.
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September 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Good luck to you! You will rise to the challenge,for I don’t doubt for off one second. It would make me sick to be in your position and hear spoiled teenagers complaining about stuff isn’t “fair” and how hard that test was and how they had to “like, pull an all-nighter” to get something done. There’s only one thing that gets pulled during an “all-nighter,” and it ain’t your brain. These kids have so much nerve with their expectations, I want to just smack them silly. Especially when they show you they can’t have, like, an adult conversation without, like, totally saying “like” after every word in their, like, 9th-grade level vocabulary. Like, cheers!