Uni with young kids - how did you manage?

[nonamemummy]

I’m wanting to start uni next year. I currently only work part time but the uni course I will be full time. I’m just worried as I have young children to work around aswell. I’m wondering if anyone has started uni with young children themselves and how they managed it?

Got a 6 and 7 year old and I started this year doing Speech and Language Therapy. You just cope really - I use breakfast and after school club some days, DH has shifted his work patterns to finish early two days a week to cut down on the amount we need to do that, and it's just being hyper organised. I tend to get onto campus early every morning - just fits better with the family routine and get 1-2 hours work done there.

These days at least at our uni with lots of our textbooks being viewable online it's less of an issue to be fair - placements and random tutorials linked to placements that suddenly change days tend to be more of a pain in the arse than anything else.

Organisation, organisation, organisation! I started University when DD was 5 months old. I wouldn't survive without my diary and to-do lists! Stay on top of things, do assignments as soon as you get them etc. You never know when something will come up/you'll have a busy few days -it's easy to fall behind.

Make sure your tutors are aware - my course is practical based but I have lectures every Monday and am allowed to take DD in on these days to sit in the room and play if I don't have care for her (I don't do it often, but it removes the stress/panic of thinking I'll have to miss an important lecture!). I was also allowed a short extension for one module when she was ill and couldn't go to nursery for a while.