Morning call
Wake up at 7.15am, have a shower and get dressed. Go downstairs make a cup of tea and get my three kids’ breakfast ready. Put on the news and scan various channels. I am studying politics and have to be up-to-date with current affairs.
At 7.30am I get the kids up and from this point onwards I will be dressing the younger one and getting my older kids out the door by 8.15am. I leave for college at 8.25am, where I grab a coffee before I go to class. Had to phone the orthodontist at break time to make an appointment (on my day off) to take my oldest son to get his braces fixed.
It’s Tuesday so I’m in all day. I have history in the morning and geography in the afternoon. I didn’t get much done the night before. I had to help out at my daughter’s rainbow group, so I have to go to the library after college. I need some notes to help me with my research methodology and for some other units. If I don’t do this today I will have to come in on my day off and get them. The research notes are from a book I can’t afford to buy, so I will have to endlessly photocopy pages from library.
Money for the kids
At lunch go to the library and print off notes from my data stick (handy things). Have lunch then go to afternoon class which ends at 4.00pm. Go to library, find the book in question and take it out! Get home around 4.30pm. My husband has university today, so two oldest kids are in the house when I get home doing their homework. I can’t afford childcare for the one who is 11, so my oldest son (aged 15) gets him from school.
My youngest child who is 6 goes to after school care which costs £7.00 per week for one session. I pay this from my student loan, as Kilmarnock College had no funds left and I do not qualify for funding from Student Awards Agency Scotland because I am married. My husband picks up my youngest from after school care while I make dinner and, again, watch the news. Phone husband to pick up some bread and milk.
It’s about 6.00pm now and I have to tidy the house and get things ready for the next day, including packed lunches and clothes. About 7.00pm I get out notes for research methodology and go over them. Then I do homework. This takes about and hour and a half. At 8.30pm I get my youngest off to bed then go online to find out about the geography stuff I need for my project. I spend about half an hour on this.
Washing days and Mondays
Put washing on, fold dry clothes and put them away. This takes about an hour. My husband is studying now so I will organise older kids - make sure they’ve done their homework and have their stuff ready for the following day. Now I can sit on sofa for an hour and watch TV, although I usually watch pogrammes related to course work i.e. documentaries/news. This is the only chance I get to catch up so if I don’t record it I miss it. Around 11.00pm, usually nearer 12.00am, I go to bed, unless I have exams, which means I am up until 3.00 or 4.00am.
Some days are more or less busier, depending on what I have to do or if my husband is at university. I haven’t put housework on this on this particular day, for example, which is a Tuesday. I do it on a Monday afternoon, as I am off. We have only one computer so my husband and I take turns. When I am doing something else, he is using it for research, and vice versa.
When I have an exam or an essay to do, my husband does everything and I get on with whatever I have to do and the same goes for him. My husband works at the weekend, so I just wait until kids are in bed and study later. I try to do at least an hour a night if possible. When it’s a kids’ time of the year, say, Halloween, it is nearly impossible.
I am lucky in some regards, being married and having someone to share the responsibilities with. However, financially I feel discriminated against because I am married, especially when it comes to childcare and benefits.
My day does not take in to account the pressure I feel to keep my family as normal as possible while living under strained financial circumstances, nor does it take in to account the times when I explain to my children they can’t have something but that it will be ok in three years when I have my degree and am working. I may be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel but the kids can’t. I ask myself at least once a week, is it worth it?
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