On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 19:05:10 GMT, 'Kate
wrote:

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 13:20:45 GMT, "PBSL"
wrote:


"'Kate" wrote in message
. ..
On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 17:17:55 GMT, "PBSL"
wrote:



Thanks Kate
pbs

You're very welcome.
I have only had sporadic bursts of free time this semester to post but
I'm glad I could help. You seem like a reasponsible parent... hang
around for a bit. It's a good group.

'Kate

Thanks, Kate, I was planning on lurking here for a while.
I feel a lot better if I'm close to other single parents, and this is one
way
for me as I don't get out much here.
Do you mind if I ask, do you work as well as study?

No... I'm fortunate to have a survivable income for another 1.5 years.
I'm fairly sure I can finish my Master's in 2 years (by Spring 06)
rather than 3.

I thought being a working single parent was hard enough .

It is! It absolutely is. But others (a number of them post here) do
all three jobs (child/ren, home, work). I'm not sure how but I am
sure that if you want to know, others will tell you how they manage.
We all have slightly different circumstances WRT health, age, support
system, number of children, income, local availability and cost of
higher ed, cost of living, standard wages and benefits, and etc...

When I did my masters, I was also working three days a week, and the
girls were then, lessee....12 & 14. We were the only members of the
family in the country, which was Australia. That sounds like a recipe
for disaster, but looking back, even though my youngest had a very
stressful 2 1/2 week hospitalisation there, it was one of the best
times of my parenting life. So you just never know. Part of the reason
it was such a good time, too, was that I had enough money for probably
the only time in my single parenthood. It was so nice.....too bad I
don't any more....:-) Ah well.

But in the end, I think it comes down to cost/benefit/desire. Doing it
is one thing... staying the course through a number of years and over
a number of hurdles takes devotion.

So true. One of the very hardest things for me, has been not having
anyone who loved them as much as I do to help with the day to day
stresses and hassles. Their Dad, of course, loves them as much as I
do, but for various reasons we weren't in the same town much of the
time.

Still, I'm almost there. D's moved out and stopped by today with her
partner to tell me she'd gotten interested in cooking & to borrow some
recipes. She's off to university in the spring. T's in her final year
of school and halfway out the door, in that she's got a job and a life
of her own now. It's hard to believe how fast it all happened, slow
and brutal as it often seemed at the time.

Take care.

Cele