Any PhD Students Fancy A Mutual Support Thread?

[GentlyGentlyOhDear]

Is anyone else currently doing a PhD? I've just had my first baby and am trying to get back into the swing of things academically. Is there anyone else out there in a similar situation?

I'm currently on mat leave from my PhD until the new year, but I've been doing two days a week since baby was 4 months old as I desperately need to get finished! My registration ends in June next year, then I have 2 years to write-up (part-time), but I'm aiming to get finished within a year and a half.

Really should be working now...

Oooh can I join?
In year 3 of an ESRC funded full time PhD. Two DCs, 10 and 6.
Exhausted, but happy to be doing it.

eight can I pick your brain about ERSC, I am just completing the application as we speak. I am trying to get funding for part time! How did you find the process and ongoing funding from them?

Hi Alpha, I got funding through a studentship at a particular university. They had twelve studentships available at my institution on a 1+3 full-time basis. I think about 80 people applied for the 12. There were two socio-legal spaces and I'm lucky the committee chose mine as one of them.
I understand that open-competition studentships are harder to get. Also, I know a lot of institutions including mine, don't like accepting part-time PhD students as the completion rates are so poor, which negatives affects the institutions further funding.
How old are your DCs? What kind of funding are you going for? Where? And why part-time? Sorry for barrage of questions in return! :)

Dc's will be 3mths and 2.5 years at start. ERSC full scholarship funding on a part time basis. Kent university and part-time as I will have to combine this with work and childcare! I did consider applying for full time and just going for it but I cannot commit the required 37 hours a week. No worries about all the questions - I value any advice!
The university have been encouraging about the part time aspect but i am not sure if this is just face value or not?

Hi Alpha, can't give you any advice on ESRC as I'm AHRC funded, but as for the 'not clever enough' feeling- yes that's very common! I felt the same way when I did my application (probably exactly at this time last year). Hadn't done any serious writing for about 7 years and had been working in my field of study (museums) for all that time so had a good 'practical' brain but hadn't exercised my academic brain for awhile. It all comes back pretty quick. Also the advice given to me was that people who had been out in the workforce tend to do better at gaining funding (at least in the case of AHRC). You have excellent credentials. : )

Kent Alpha? What subject? I know a couple of criminologists there.
I'm glad they're supportive of part-time though, I wish I'd had that option in retrospect, full time with two DCs is exhausting.
I agree with twogirls, work experience is very beneficial in the application process.

Thank you, subject would be sociology and social policy looking at the role of the vcs with regard children and young people so would touch on criminology in terms of youth offending. I'm just going to give it my all and hope my work and field experience demonstrates my absolute commitment to this subject!
Can you give any advice on referees, am I better to select 2 sector based people who know me very well professionally or should I use my supervisor, but she's only known me a very short time?

I'd recommend using one academic referee and one sector based to cover both bases.
Also, the more people in the department you can get behind you the better. The people who tend to do best at the funding committee are those who know most people in the department.

Hello PhD-ers, Dotty, I remember you well from the other thread started in c2010!
I am in my third year, and time is marching on in a scary way now. I am have funding til September 2013 and then the prospect of some work so my supervisor is really cracking the whip now but because it took ages to get ethics through and then my sample, I fear I am horribly behind. Basically I am only just in data analysis /nvivo stage now and need to be writing by the spring. eeeek
However I am FT, have a husband who can do 90% of the childcare for our primary school aged kids, so I can do this, right.... right?

I came on today looking for top tips on time management, I really need a way to squeeze more out of the day whilst still managing to see something of my children this year. Anyone got any ideas? 5am starts is the best I've got...

Hi PhD-ers!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. DH is off for the 2 week xmas and new year period so I am encouraging 'Daddy-Daughter Time' so I can crack on with the PhD and mumsnet. My maternity leave ends officially on Monday so I'm now frantically trying to get all on my self-imposed tasks completed! I've got funding until the end of May and am starting to panic about finances after that as we can't really manange long-term on DH's wage and I definitely won't be finished by then

miffy my dd is 9 months so I've just been pulling out admin and reading at nap times on my non-study days. With primary-aged children could you perhaps all sit down together to do 'homework hour' when the dcs do their spellings/homework and you maybe get some emails done or write up To Do lists etc? I know it isn't 'proper' work, but it is supporting them with their work and doing the little bits that need to be done and can easily take a full morning if you are trying to procrastinate.

Hi all, please can l join? Am in 3rd year of FT funded phd. Currently on 4 month leave of absence with dc3 (13 weeks) but starting up again at start of Feb and feeling undeer pressure as v little done and no articles written or conferences attended (the one time l was going to do a poster in September l was heavily pregnant and too ill to do it). Also have to juggle 2 PT jobs to keep afloat financially, so everything feels pretty daunting at the moment.

Apologies for a bit of a negative first post!

I am just writing my proposal and totally worried about not getting the pitch right as really need funding to be able to afford to do this!
On another note would any of you wise ladies have any 'top tips' to offer a newbie phd novice who is a mother to 2 young children!

Hi daisychain, well done you for getting as far as you have with 3 DC's. Can I ask, how much childcare will you have when you go back? Are the older ones in school? You will get there, you are already in year 3. Hard to get going after a break but once you're back in I bet it will be ok.

alpha my advice is to treat it like a job, try not to get distracted by home things during work time. Tell everyone you are off to work, and call yourself a PhD researcher or something. I found that in the first weeks people would think I had all this free time because I was a student again, but in reality it's just like a job. I try not to work from home cos the laundry gets in the way of work...

We have decided to go for DC3 after all, so very curious to see how anyone with 3DCs is faring with PhD work. May never have another chance to complete our family so thought we'd better go for it and just go broke paying for nursery, CM etc... Hoping I dont completely lose motivation while on leave though! AHRC gives you 6 mos paid mat leave so why not, eh....

Thanks twogirls. I have around 5 half days of childcare a week (dh/dm) for the baby, with older dcs at school. Not enough, but he is only 3 months, was 7 weeks premmie and is ebf, so still don?t want to leave him at all really. l want to use naptimes and evenings as much as poss.

Eight my phd is in the socio~legal field too. Sadly, funded from my uni not the ersc, so no maternity pay for me.

alphal totally agree with twogirls advice. Also l would say once the proposal is in keep doing as much reading/prep as you can. l started off thinking my topic was very manageable within 3 years as l had plenty of relevant experience, but it is amazing how one line of enquiry can open up 10 others! Good luck wwith. your proposal.

Happy New Year... Has anyone managed to do any work over the holidays? (looking for justification for bringing home a bag of books and not opening any of them...)

nope... and I have to submit my rather complex first analysis chapter next week... it's only half done, I have to work on Monday and this weekend will be full of child things... why do we do this to ourselves?? think its time for a and a

My justification for everything is that I work better when I've had a proper break. Starting Monday it's head down, work hard until Easter. (who am I kidding, until half term when the childcare will go all crazy or until someone gets ill)...

Family has a way of getting in the way of writing. I had planned to write a few thousand words before Christmas holidays but DS was laid up with horrible horrible flu and pneumonia so was off school for ten days and lying on me.
Then I was Ill with pleurisy and now DD will be having at least another week off school with flu and a horrible rash. I popped into the office for two hours yesterday and seriously considered dropping out of the whole damn PhD as parenting and studying is so damn hard to combine sometimes :(
I know things will improve in time though, it's just that I'm feeling the pressure to complete the thesis this year as well as finding a full time job which doesn't require me relocating my entire family.
Rant over, I'm sure things will begin to look better once I get some well children and some writing done.

I've done nothing over Christmas.

Family has kept me very busy - & now we're thinking about moving house before Easter. This means I'll have to set up all new childcare - very scared how it'll impact the PhD.

Well everyone in my department has said the same thing... No work has been done by anyone. Now for the steep climb until Easter. Must book a holiday to give me something to aim for! Good luck getting back to work everyone...

Hi there,

I'm late to this thread but glad I found it! I've been feeling utterly overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do and how the hell I fit it in around my DS (who is constantly ill with kid bugs).

I'm nearly half way through a Health-care related PhD, all funded but I'm sure a time will come when I have to go unpaid because I just can't see myself finishing on time.

Advice to Alpha: I think it's wise if you can afford it, to have as much childcare as possible. I applaud anyone who is able to study while their DCs nap but I think relying exclusively on that time won't do your work justice. I have heard other students wistfully planning families, saying "it'll be fine, I can study while the baby/children nap". :o)

Hi BoFo, welcome. Good luck with getting through. It must be hard if your DS is ill a lot. I would agree with what you said about childcare- you need to be able to focus for long periods of time, and it's just not possible to do that when you have a baby/child who needs you. Some days it takes a couple of hours to get going on the writing, too- its not a straightforward process. I find the hardest thing is that I am exhausted from reading/writing all day and then doing endless chores, bedtimes, etc--even with a lot of help from hubby!

I totally understand, twogirls, although reading/writing isn't physically demanding it somehow drains you. I often feel like I've run a marathon after a long day! Then the bedtime rounds come up - feels like an endurance test!
Hope everyone's work/proposals are shaping up nicely?

Hi Bofo.

Got 2 weeks left of mat leave so have set my self a goal to write a first draf of a journal article in that time, to take some pressure off when l start back. Does that sound vaguely realistic?

Hello everyone - I've been AWOL for a while and realise now that I haven't done a proper day's work on my thesis for nearly a month, with Christmas and then a block of teaching. This is not good for someone who is in her final year, and supposed to be full time. I'm feeling rather demoralised at the moment actually and need to get my PhD mojo back. Come on, inspire me with tales of progress!

Daisy - a journal article in two weeks sounds quite ambitious. But you could at least get a rough draft done, I'm sure. And it's always easier to edit than fill a blank page, I find.