To get up at 5am every day?

[mum677778]

I’m a mum to one lovely toddler. He’s in nursery for two days a week (whilst I work part time) and the rest of the week he’s home with me.

I really want to retrain and take my career in a new direction, and need to find some work/study time in between looking after my son, the part time job, cooking, cleaning and general life admin.

How hard would it be to get up at 5am every day to work/study for a solid 1.75 hours before my son gets up at 7? I would then work for another hour or two in the evening when he’s gone to bed.

Is it doable or will I be a dead woman walking?

Doable. Long as you give yourself a rest now and then.

Easy enough to do providing you are in bed early enough..
I should be doing this as dd fucking up at 6am😒 so no chance of getting some study in unless im up earlier. I just cant bring myself to cut my 'mummy time' short in evenings to do it lol.

I would find that very tiring but if you were going to bed quite early and getting enough sleep it could be manageable. You'd need to be quite dedicated though. It's hard getting up early on a cold, dark winter morning.

Would an extra day at nursery or a couple of half days be an option at all. That would give you set weekly study time but during the day.

To get up at 5am every day?

What is “up at 5am every day”? Is it a movie? Or a book?

Doable if you can sleep. That might depend on your son sleeping well.

Doable.

I get up at 5 am to go to work.

Doable IF you have a sleeper, strict about going to bed and not utterly terrible like me at getting up

Depends entirely on how you cope with early mornings. I'm a night owl and this would have me wrung out and exhausted. But larks could cope

I’m also wondering if I actually have the willpower to do this. I suspect not.

Do it while he is in nursery, even add an extra day.

I'm awake around 5am most mornings, get a cuppa, back to bed and I study there, comfy cosy, depends if you have a DP that will be disturbed by you doing this - my DH is an early bird too so up around the same time as me. Doable but if you're not used to being up this early then the transition may take some time.

I always have the best of intentions to use time in the morning (not for studying, but either for housework, exercise, or catching up on work) but I manage it so infrequently it’s embarrassing. I can absolutely while away an hour or two drinking coffee, doomscrolling and listening to the radio, though… so if you have the discipline and willpower, go for it.

Can you afford an extra day of nursery? In your shoes, that's what I'd do. You'd still be with the DC more than half the week.

It is doable provided you can get a good nights sleep and enough of it.

It’s doable if you do it. If you don’t do it then it’s not. Simple as that really. No one will be pinning you to your bed when the 5am alarm goes off, you have the freedom to get up and study.. so yes it’s doable... you just have to do it.

I would never do this as I would just roll over and go back to sleep. However, I’d study in the evening, so if you think you’d do it……..

Just because your son sleeps til 7 now doesn’t mean he always will. What if he starts waking at 6, you’ve lost your study time

Just because your son sleeps til 7 now doesn’t mean he always will.

All the more reason to make the most of it now then I suppose!

I couldn't do that. I'm just not a morning person and 5am sounds like the middle of the night to me.

I would carve out time at the opposite end of the day instead because I know I could do that and I would be much more productive then.

If 5am works for you, go for it but if not, there are other options.

Definitely doable. I did the same when DD was 0-8 years old. Good luck x

you won't know unless you try

It's doable, if you want it to be. You'd have to be going to bed pretty early though because exhaustion is real and it will hit you and burn you out.
I would do the opposite to you though, get DC to bed nice and early then study with a good cuppa and some chilled out background music before going to bed (keep study and bedroom separate! Helps you to switch off) and sleep until 7am when DC gets up. You have to be really organised tho, clean up dinner straight away so it's all done and dusted by the time DC is in bed. What are you wanting to study OP?

I'm a night owl, so did the opposite. Uni in early 40s with three kids. Most of my assignments were done between 10pm & 2am. Was a full time course with placements so no time in the day when they were at school and I worked a bit at weekends plus all the domestic tasks. When I look back now I don't know how I did it other than sheer willpower😴 you have to really want it to manage it!

Of you're a 'morning person' then why not. I'm not good with mornings but can study after the kids have gone to bed between 10pm and 1am. Doable either way 🤷‍♀️

Henry Ford apparently wrote “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're (probably) right.”

You have a goal to retrain & get new work so keep that in the forefront - it wont be forever.
I had a couple of motivational phrases like this on the fridge & in my study room/in my diary. Sometimes I still walked away from the books (in your case to stay in bed :) ) but the long term goal to graduate was what I wanted.

Good luck with your decision - it can only be yours to make

"If you can dream it, you can make it so" - Thoreau