5 year old wont leave me alone. Going to fail my exam

[fmylyfe]

Had an exam that started today at 10am. I have until 10am tomrrow morning to submit anything. I have 500/2000 words for a very difficult subject (stats). She asks me to play every 5 mins. I distract her with the TV but she's back after he programmes have finished to ask me to do something for her again. Her behaviour has been terrible since schools have closed.

I spend the mornings getting her school work done, and maybe to the park if its dry then spend the afternoon just playing.

I'm going to fail this exam. I cant even think straight. I'm exhausted. Have no idea what to do.

Can you leave it until after she’s gone to bed?

I hope you manage to get it done and pass it

Stop trying until her bedtime. Try to relax and eat nourishing food and drink coffee, storm it after her bedtime.

Grab a snooze now if you can then pull an all nighter.

I just want2d to get it out of the way. I wont sleep tonight. I really hate all fighters. Good thing it's my last exam

Good luck with the exam. You probably feel worse because you have some exam anxiety. Your 5 year old could be picking up with it and want to spend time with you because they are worried. Is there anything you can do to get them in bed early?

As it's a one-off, bribe her. If she stays in her room until the timer goes/sits and watches a film to the end then she can have whatever reward will motivate her.

I might have to go to bed early with her and wake at 3am to finish it. I'm too tired to stay up. She never listens so I cant bribe her in any way.

Honestly in this instance I’d be bribing with chocolate or ice cream.

I really feel your pain.

If you are so exhausted just now that you think you will sleep, absolutely go to bed with her now and get up at 3am.

Good luck 🤞

I assume there's no father on the scene who could look after her?
Childcare bubbles are allowed, are you in one?

Obviously it's too late for this particular exam but if you have any more in future, call in whatever help you can.

Meanwhile - would it help to tell yourself you'll do your best and if you fail and have to retake it, it's not the end of the world?

These are exceptional times, it's hard to get anything else done when homeschooling a 5 year old

I'm so sorry you've had such a difficult day. Your daughter won't understand the importance of your exam, she is too young. She is probably sensing your stress and responding the only way she knows how which is by seeking out more connection time with you. As others have said, if I was in your situation I would be planning to work while she's sleeping. Sleep now if you need and get up at 3am, whatever time you can manage. Obviously far from ideal but this is not your fault, or your daughters, its just a ridiculous stupid situation where parents cannot get the support they need. Worst case scenario can you defer or retake your exam?

I wfh full time and have been working 9am till midday then home schooling DC6/looking after DC2 then once they are both asleep working again 9pm till 2am. Its hard but you can do it if you have to. You are stronger than you may think

I'm dreading this for Monday.. I hvean exma Monday too and my childcre shut. My little one is 2.5 and I don't know how I. Will cope. Big hugs to you op x

@Pleaseaddcaffine

I'm dreading this for Monday.. I hvean exma Monday too and my childcre shut. My little one is 2.5 and I don't know how I. Will cope. Big hugs to you op x

You still have time to find someone to help. There's no way you can do an exam and look after a 2.5 year old at the same time - unless it's a very short exam and they will sit and watch TV while you're doing it? My nearly 4yo will zone out in front of the TV but at 2.5 he still had a short attention span and would interrupt me and need attention from time to time.

I'm sorry you're stressed. To be honest my five year old would have had extremely short shrift from me if she kept disturbing me like this. She's old enough to understand that you have something important to do. I wouldn't accept her disruptive behaviour.
Hope you get sorted. 💐

Pffft!!

Bet Bridget’s got lots of friends.

Ignore it, OP.

Your 5 year old is a child, not an ornament!

Wow, unnecessarily bitchy comment there @YardleyX

The OP said she didn't know what to do, I told her what I would do. I also offered sympathy. Sorry if my response isn't exactly the same as everyone elses. Clearly my many real friends appreciate my advice, sympathy and perspective more than a random Internet person such as yourself. Perhaps be a bit kinder to people with different perspectives next time eh?

You’re the one saying that a 5 year old daring to speak to her mum is “disruptive behaviour” 🤷‍♀️.

Odd.

I hope you manage to get through it after bedtime!

I don't understand why you did her school work and went to the park on a day you had an exam, surely for one day you could have missed those things, stuck on a longer film and knuckled down.

Good luck with your exam though.

Sorry I wasn't clear. On a usual day, when it's not raining (and it was raining yesterday) that is the schedule. I cant just let her fall behind with school and if she doesn't get exercise then she turns in to quite a pain. I have to keep her mentally healthy too.

Anyway. Last night I bad awful insomnia because my head was killing me with a throbbing ache and managed only 2 hours sleep. I've submitted an absence form for this exam as my work is just not up to scratch and I dont have enough time. Ive fucked up, but it's been really tough with DD at home and there was hope that schools would be open giving me plenty of time in the day to complete the exam with no distractions.

Is this a university exam? If it is, contact your tutor, or the students union, or your wellbeing service. There will be a policy for exceptional circumstances, which is exactly what this is. The sooner you do it the better. And they might be able to reassure you a bit as well. Gosh I feel for you OP.

Hi Freias, yes it's for a university exam.

I'm seeing my tutor today as he is also my research project supervisor, so I will bring it up with him. Hopefully my university understands. I'm unsure if I can retake 3rd year modules. I really want to graduate with honours.

That's good. The university I work at definitely recognizes that these are unprecedented times, I'm sure that yours will also be understanding and help you find a solution. They want you to succeed too! Bear in mind that academic tutors aren't always aware of the full range of support that's available, so if you don't get the help you need from your tutor definitely approach the students union or the wellbeing service.

Universities should have policies for parent students. They might be making them up as they go along because this situation is unprecedented and they're fire fighting on multiple fronts so be patient but persistent.

Good luck