PhDMums

[PhDMumof1]

Anyone want to start a PhD / support thread?

Welcome! It has taken me ages, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I hope it works for you too.

I have fixed a submission date with my supervisor - week of 7 March. I am now regretting it as we all have a cold!!

Watch this space ... and wish me luck!

yahoo yahoo! Did some work yesterday! AND I managed to focus, instead of worrying about what DH was up to with DS

Now all I need to do is......

1. Finish writing thesis
2. Hope that DH gets new job in Dundee
3. Write to Dundee and persuade them to accept me on a transfer from Newcastle's medical degree (not hopeful).
4. Find lovely nursery for DS (feel very weepy at the thought of him battling it out for attention with other babies )

Hurrah hurrah Highlander!!

Good luck with 1, 2 & 3!! The good thing about studying / nursery, is that you don't have to have them in ALL week ...

I also did some work this w/e - DH took DS to his parents for w/e and I slogged, slogged - only logged on here ONCE!!

ooh, I'm impressed that you didn't spend all day on MN. It's my vice at the moment......

I actually removed my whole study downstairs to where I don't have web access so that I wouldn't be on it all day!!!

But today the builders are in so I am surfing and keeping an ear out for them ... and doing a bit of half-hearted proof reading of MY FINAL FINAL DRAFT!!!

I considered PhD but am struggling so much doing my Masters I have decided I cannot put myself or family through it. I take my hat off to you all.

Well done PhDMum. Don't think I could have finished mine if I'd had kids first (which is probably why I'm now the oldest mum in the playground!). My dh did finish his between dd1 and dd2, though. What are your plans now you've finished? Are you looking for jobs? (I'm in an ML dept, btw.) I am desperately trying to restrict my surfing to lunchbreak (= 10 mins max!) and after I finish working at night (usually c. 1 a.m.) before I go to bed. But it's hard.
Good luck with the proof-reading. Don't worry too much - your examiners will pick up anything you miss and you won't pass or fail on account of a few typos!

mears, I would say an MSc is harder than a PhD. I presume there was a large taught component with lots of huge assignments in yours? In my lab, there were a lot of PhD students who came from a masters course and they all said the MSc was harder. With a PhD you have to exercise a lot of self-discipline, but your time, largely, is your own.

Highlander, you probably already know this, but Dundee are pretty good about taking students on to the Medicine degree from more unconventional routes. One of our ex-PhD students got a place there quite easily, so I would say it's definitely worth a try!

Thank you ElBell. THis is definitely a good week PhD wise. Feel like I am making progress ... ! (cross fingers all round). Do you mean ModLangs?

I have no idea what I am going to do. Have lots of daydreams but am focussing on finishing then have kept childcare on until July so that I can have a break, then look for jobs. Would like to get a couple of papers published too so that the PhD doesn't disappear to nothingness.

I used to work in the City and think that having a salary again would be great but NOT the lifestyle.

PS ElBell where are you based (down South?)

Hi PhDMum! Yes, I meant Modern Langs! No, I'm not down south any more, though I was till recently. We moved in 2003.
You're brave to give up a job in the city (and the salary that goes with it). I went straight into the PhD from my UG degree. Don't think I'd have had the nerve to do it otherwise. As far as jobs are concerned, it's a good idea to get some publications - you are definitely more employable with them than without (especially in view of RAE2008... aaargh, panic, panic, etc.).

Mears. I would tend to agree about a Masters being harder in many ways than a PhD. Certainly that was my dh's experience. (I didn't do an MA... in the 'olden days' when I started it wasn't considered necessary or even desirable...). Good luck!

ElBell I don't know if I'm brave - I think it is braver facing all the macho men when pg, then when coming back 5 months later and having to juggle baby, nannies, work, travel, boss, DH etc etc. I miss the status that came with my job, but I think a lot of us miss that when mums anyway? Is a v difficult transition to make from being well-educated, independent, etc etc to a financial appendage of DH and emotional appendage of DS!!

I will focus on getting published and hold back on jobs that require relocation but I am definitely going to use PhD and skills acquired in City ... question is HOW?!

I am in one of the Oxbridges - so can pick up supervisions etc, hopefully. And maybe some other freelance stuff. Academic friends tell me that depts increasingly look to buy in courses from freelancers for mat leave cover etc. Is this true?

Hi,

I have a PhD - but it all seems a dim and distant memory now (finished in 1997). Mine was in meteorolgy and oceanography. I think the biggest single thing having a PhD shows is that you have staying power and can come out sane at the end .

Throckenholt... Sane? Not so sure about that.

PhDMum... You're definitely in a good place for picking up bits of part-time teaching. And, if you're prepared to travel a bit (to other local universities, I mean) you could probably quite easily pick up odd courses or parts of courses here and there. IME, depts are often looking to 'buy in' teaching from outside, for maternity cover or to cover for people who are on research leave (= me for a term from next September... I can't wait ). Language teaching (though perhaps not the most exciting thing you'll ever do) is also a good fallback. Depts are always looking for part-time language teachers, and for a full-time job people will probably want to see that you can do/have done it. Good luck.

Hurrah lucky you - hope that you get a chance to chill. Here, they make parents sign a declaration that leave will not be used for childcare ... !!

Ellbell - I thought twice about writing "sane" but couldn't come up with a better word. Maybe I meant "alive" . I think I was trying to say that the biggest thing about doing a PhD is that you actually got through it - and survived

bit like parenthood really (but usually PhDs don't take so long) ......

Not sure which is the biggest threat to my sanity... motherhood or PhD! Since having my dds I definitely find myself doing mad things like forgetting the name of the main character of the book I'm talking about halfway through a class, and having to call him 'the character' till I remember! Think my students find me a tad eccentric, but maybe one day some of them will become parents... and then they'll realise .

I really NEED to use my leave to do some research, as I've done so little since my dds were born. But as of next Sept, dd1 will be at school full-time, and dd2 will be in nursery part-time, so childcare (I have an angelic childminder!) will be a lot easier. People keep asking me if I'm going to spend my leave period abroad, and I just laugh... I intend to lock myself in my study and not come out till I've written something!

ElBell - totally sympathise, oh, and take the internet connection out before you do. I have just spent 1 hr reading that crazy thread on "childless and not working" - now THAT is an example of lack of sanity (throckenholt if you are looking for definitions you should check it out if you have a spare hour or 2!!)

eek - just read the first post on that thread - and saw it was 300+ posts - can't handle that now - I am supposed to be working

totally mental one

am filling in forms online ... hahaha

Where's that PhDMum? Not that I have time to look at it of course, but you've got me curious now... want to see the nature of the insanity at least (always reassuring to find people MORE insane than me ).
Anyway, shouldn't you be working? Or have you ... dare I say it? ... finished??? (Just the viva to worry about then!)

yes I should be working ElBell - but what are you doing on here may I ask?!

the other thread is just brilliant, totally crazy is on active conversations now, and subj heading is "Childless and not working" or something

was filling in forms for submission deadline ... 7 April .... but I have just booked tickets to go to France on 17 March, which is the REAL deadline not the pretend one for the people at the Board of Graduate Studies ......

I'm on here recovering from v. trying evening with dd2 (who is nearly 3), who was ill over last weekend and is - I think - just incredibly tired, but shows it by whinging in the most annoying way possible, crying for no reason, demanding to be picked up and put down again, etc etc.... I am pretty sure she's not actually ill (and she has been a treasure for childminder all day) just a bit 'floppy and fed up' ... well, now I know how she feels!!! I am SUPPOSED to be marking essays and/or preparing some food for dh who has been working away today and is due back soon....

Good luck for the deadline. It'll be fine, I'm sure!

My DS is being the same, really clingy at the mo, took an hour to get him to sleep. Basically I am working the longest hours I ever have so am spending time away from him, but we have so much time to make up for it when I am finished !!

DH's dinner in oven. I have gone off eating and cooking far too busy here at the screen!! oooh, I might waste away ...... given that my PhD is on mental illness in literature it would be v appropriate.