School
Do I miss school? I think I can finally say yes, I miss going to school.
I read a blog a little while back by daring young mom about keeping current and I thought, maybe I should go back and get my masters? Of course it was fleeting and the thought only lasted that evening. To think about what I want to do once my kids are grown is scary.
I think I would like to teach college, but I’m not sure. I think it would be nice to have a psychology practice, but it would be more of a refuge for teenage girls who are in trouble.รย Iรย hope that someday I’ll know what I want to be and that I’ll have the self confidence to do it. Right now it’s like, wow a masters is a lot. Do I really want a masters? Of course it’s no help seeing Jon having a difficult time getting into the Master’s program, and I know he’s much more intelligent than I am. (It’s more of the process of getting three academic letters of recommendation. He’s going to take a class this fall and hopefully if he does well he’ll be able to ask that teacher for a letter of recommendation and things will go smoothly after this. )
Anyways, as I am left not doing much of anything besides taking care of my daughters, I wonder if I have more that I should be doing. I wouldn’t want to go to school while Jon was in school. That would make life a little crazy yet again. He’d take classes during the day and would need to study at night, so to have me take classes at night would probably be pretty difficult while he’s going to school. Then I wonder how long will we be in Vegas. Once he’s finished with his masters I want him to look at other universities to see if he can move ahead in his field. I really want to get out of Vegas once he gets his masters, but if he decides to get a PhD I’d be willing to wait as long as we’re in a bigger house by then. ๐
Life is just so unsure. I want to keep my studies and life experiences current, but it takes so much to be a mom that it can be hard when what you’re interested in needs to be done outside the home. I’m not a writer so I can’t just sit at home and write. I need to be out there learning or doing things that are related to psychology or criminal justice. I just don’t know what.
I feel a little lost.รย Really I don’t want to be making money or working, I just want to be developing myself and my mind.
I don’t know if I’m ready to go back for an even higher degree. I worry that it would be ten times harder since we’re still planning on having at least one more child and a masters is much different than a bachelors. I just wish I knew where to go from here and that I knew what turns life will give me so I can prepare now.
Would you go back and get a masters if you were planning on staying home, home schooling and having a child while you were doing it?
June 20th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
1st – You hit on my pet peeve. Please stop saying that Jonathan is so much more intelligent than you. No offense to Jon, he’s smart, but you are by no means stupid; you are also smart. Just because people study in different fields or have different strengths does not necessarily make one of them more intelligent. Case in point – Brien and I. He is a well-rounded intelligent individual who has his education in hard science. I have a liberal arts degree we are both capable of talking about things that the other person doesn’t know about. He spent a few years in France, but sometimes wants to use the wrong French word and I get to correct him. He has lots of information about soil fragmentation and the botany on the landscape, it means very little to me. (Do we really care that different sagebrush communities indicate differences about soil?)
June 20th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
2nd- With regards to education, you need to do what makes you happy. If you decide to casually pursue the occasional class to stay on top of things and possibly make yourself more marketable to an employer, then do it. This doesn’t mean that you have to hop into the master’s program. When you are used to formal education it’s hard to stop. I went back and took a class, only to decide that I didn’t want to take any more courses until I needed to in order to fulfill a specific goal. This now means that I need to complete Nevada School Law in the next two years if I want to keep a current substitute teacher license in NV. Soon, I will likely be a stay-at-home-mom and it worries me to think that I will lose my occupational identity. Other moms who are trying to re-enter the workforce have told me how difficult it is, but they also live in Ely where the options are quite slim. If you worry about what you will do if something happens to Jonathan make sure you have a good insurance policy that can take care of you for a little bit while you get your feet under you.
June 20th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
I second Andrea’s thoughts.
As far as staying current and reentering the workplace. I think the most difficult thing will be answering to people younger than you. This is my mom’s trouble. However, after nearly 4 years, she’s starting to adjust, adapt and catch up.
It’s a shame that in this world it’s either a SAHM or a career person, and that SAHMs that try to reenter the workplace have such a hard time.
Question, would you really reenter the work place if you didn’t have to work? I probably wouldn’t.
June 21st, 2007 at 10:27 am
If you actually feel like going to school, you should do it. Just from my own experience, once you’re out of the groove of school, it’s hard to get it back.
Having said that, I must also stress to you how fast these young years of your kids will go. One day you will wake up to the sounds of teenagers, and wonder where the time went. This special time with them will never come again.
I guess my suggestion would be to either take one class at a time, or find some kind of volunteer work that fits your schedule. With your training, you might do well with the birthmothers at LDS Family Services. I know they have volunteers that do things like accompany the girls to dr. appointments and things like that. I think you would be awesome at that. You could also see if the Police Dept. has some kind of mentoring program where you could help troubled teen girls, it’s worth a shot.
Mostly, pray about it. I’ll pray for you too. ๐ Luv, Shauntae