To think doing a PhD with young children is impossible?

Mine are a bit older (upper primary and early secondary) which undoubtedly helps but I just wanted to say it’s really normal to feel very uncertain at this stage. Or at least I tell myself it is. Which doesn’t help answer your question but it’s worth thinking about whether some of that feeling of ‘it’s all too hard’ is in there alongside the practical difficulties. It took me over a year FTE to really start to settle and feel like it was working in a way I was happy enough with. PT arts/humanities.

It's not going to be a walk in the park! Can you delay?

It’s very very tough

Cambridge medicine

Phd

Stanford post doctoral research

2 under 5 at this point

a very supportive partner

I'm just finishing my PhD and I've got a 2 year old. It's brutal honestly but I have good support at home and I wouldn't be able to do it without that support. Possible - absolutely. An easy option? Absolutely not.

Good luck

I did an MSc by Research when mine were 3 and 7 then started a PhD when they were about 6 and 10 and it took 5 years. I was also working full time for both the MSc and the PhD.

It was really hard going. My husband really helped with the DC and he worked 12 hour shifts so had a lot of time off. I am a morning person and would get up and work from 5 am til 11am on the weekends so still had the rest of the day. Most of my annual leave was spent studying.

It can be done but you will need a lot of support and will need to sacrifice quite a bit. One thing that puzzles me slightly - why are you studying in a field not well known to you?

what area of research are you in? things are different for lab work where you need long hours at the bench or book work where you need to sit alone in the library and think.

it can be done but it is not at all easy. Do come over to the 'academic common room' board on Mumsnet (hidden under 'work') and you'll find others in the same situation who can give advice that is specific to the weird world of academia.

Agreed. You need to treat it like a FT job, and be absolutely hard-headed about prioritising it. I’ve supervised several doctoral students who had young children. They all completed.

I think it’ll be extremely tough. I have a DC currently doing a PHD and it is very full time. They are finding it tough with no children and living at home but I suppose it does depend on the subject/project.

I think if it can be done within a 9-5 type situation and you're able to be really organised and keep on top of it then yes, but you'll need help with the home life from your partner

FWIW it's not the easy option I'm afraid but you'll get something out of it!

I treat it like a job but the school days are so short and invariably I get a call from nursery asking me to collect for one reason or another, that I end up working until late every evening when they’ve gone to bed.

This sounds like you aren’t treating it like a job (where your partner needs to take on their share of the filling in the gaps), but more like something you fit in around the kids while your partner has the “real” job. I think not being able to prioritise your work at least half the time would make it much harder.

What sort of support do you have? Do you have a partner or is their dad involved? It hinges on that I think.

I wouldn’t, why add so much stress and sacrifice whilst you have young children. Can you do it when they get bigger?

I did a 2 year research MSc part time whilst working with small kids, with the full intention to go on to do a PhD. I completed the masters and have not done the PhD, and honestly over those 2 years I missed out on so much with the kids that I now regret even doing the masters.

It's doable, but it's incredibly tough - much harder, I think, than balancing work and kids, and you will, undoubtably, have to make personal sacrifices to get through it.

It’s so dependent upon your particular set up that it’s impossible to say. I don’t think that at doctorate level the difference between Oxbridge and non Oxbridge will make such a difference as will your personal set up. Many people who do a PhD do so whilst caring for young children. It will be very situation specific.

Mine were 8weeks and 2yrs when I started, and I completed in three years. I had to be very disciplined with the time I had, set clear goals and took it in small steps - for example, giving myself an hour to read and make notes about an article, or write so many words etc. I really enjoyed the space to think about something else, and then enjoyed returning to being 'mum'. I dealt with it as I would a big work project. I think you have to be realistic about research methods - and I was in social sciences - I would guess being in a lab would be very different. But yes it is both possible and hugely rewarding. Good luck!

I have known people do it.

It's pretty tough.

Depends how young. Mine were 7 and 10 when I started, and I was the main parent, but I had chosen my research to fit around school holidays (it's possible in my field) and treated the practical work as a 9-5 job.