Where to look for support?

For those of you that think that continuing your education as a mother is just not possible, I am here to tell you that it can be done. Better yet, we all have the capacity to accomplish anything we want to. I am here not to boast by any means, but to possibly encourage someone else that is in a similar situation or thinking about taking the plunge to get back in school.

It seems like more of what I was looking to find were support blogs for people in a similar situation, but all I really was able to find were services that the different organizations offer for under educated citizens. This was rather discouraging, because I know that people that are in a similar situation can really help each other out.

I actually was rather surprised at my outcome of researching support groups for continuing education. There really weren’t very many sites that were directed at the students themselves. Most of the sites that I came across were for the educators teaching them how to become more of a support for their students. For example, http://adulted.about.com/ gives the educators 3 tips on how to effectively help adults that are back in school, these are: To accelerate the pace of learning, to provide comprehensive support services, and lastly to develop marketing and public outreach approaches (www.adulted.about.com). That’s great that they want to create this atmosphere, but from what I’ve found it needs to be more easily accessible for the students to find these support services.

I tried to find a support group even within Utah State University’s website and all that their Student Support Services are targeted to help are known as “disadvantaged students” in other words low income, disabled, or first generation students (www.usu.edu). It seems that they would have more of a chat forum for students to help each other out, but I wasn’t able to find one anywhere.

I have found many resourceful links all basically leading back to a few main principles that you need to grasp if you are going to be successful getting back in school. One of my all time favorite links is www.flylady.com, one of the biggest tips they have to offer is to plan a menu for your family. It is the most cost friendly and efficient way to go for a mom that’s always on the run (www.flylady.com). It is important as students that we have a well balanced diet, to keep our minds fresh and lively throughout the day. I really like this idea of menu planning, because it will keep you and your family happy and less stressed.

As a wife, mother and student you have to have good time management. Many people mistakenly believe that time management is about squeezing more tasks and activities into a day. Time management is actually about getting the important things done (Myers). Barbara Myers also suggests that we learn to do things efficiently so that we can ultimately accomplish more. Some of her tips to do this are: write your tasks down, make a daily schedule, multi-task, organize your surroundings, analyze everything you need to get done for the next week and learn to read better (Myers).

So to all of you who are either in this situation or about to dive in, we need to strive to be there for each other. I hope that these tips that I’ve found will be of some use. I was rather discouraged that there weren’t already lots of blogs about this, and if they were they weren’t really what I was trying to get at. Hopefully mine is unique, and might be able to help someone out there that is feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or burned out. Good luck to all of you!

Feel like Life is a Whirlwind?

I would like to start out by introducing my situation a little bit. I am a young mom who is trying to finish school. I am trying to research some support groups that might be able to help each other through these hard years. My husband is also in school, I feel like we don't ever get enough time together. We are constantly just passing my son back and forth between us. Some issues that I feel are suffering from both of us being in school are: trying to keep the house well-kept, always having dinner ready, keeping track of the bills, getting all of your homework done on time, having time to study for tests, having your persoanl time and also time with your spouse and children, and last but not least trying to be the best parent possible.

I know that life is definitely crazy no matter who you are getting through these college years. I feel like adding children in to the mix makes things that much more chaotic. It is definitely important to get your degree, it is a challenging but obtainable goal to finish school while trying to raise a family. I have researched out a few sites that might help with other aspects in your life. Here is one that I would highly recommend: http://www.flylady.com/ it gives you tips for organizing, menu planning, house cleaning, prioritizing your own time etc. etc.