Didn't see ANY other replies before posting - weird!

Jouri - I am the worst dental patient on the planet, I would be lying on my bed in a darkened room drinking gin if I were you. Maybe you need your own thread;-)

I can understand your frustration but I don't see what this has to do with whether you quit or not. Either you want your PhD or you don't. So unles you have really lost interest in the PhD itself anyway or the dept are actually stopping you from completing your research I would just lpough on and have a good grumble now and then. Works for me 8-)

Have you discussed this with your supervisor? Surely there is someone at your institution who has used this program? Is it a specific problem or are you not able to use this program at all? I have Barabara Byrne's book on 'Structural Equation Modeling with Amos' along with some theoretical texts. I'm not at all expert though and certainly don't have time to work on someone else's data. I can guarentee though, that the path analysis will take more than 3 hours. It's not a case of just running the data through - you have to run in many times to get the final path and tie up lose ends.

Do you HAVE to use AMOS? There may be people at your institution who can do path analysis by syntax in a different program, like Listrel or MX - AMOS is relatively new and many 'experts' prefer syntax-only alternatives. There is no-one in my dept who does SEM so I have been pretty out on a limb myself. I know that if I was absolutely desperate though I could find someone in another dept and beg for help.

Fantastic news Jade 8-)

I work mainly from home and feel very isolated. It's the one big downside to this kind of work. The people in my dept are OK but I don't see them often enough to really make friends, although we have lunch sometimes. In general, academia is a lot less soically active than my previous workplaces. It's a dilemma if you are a very soiciable person but the work you like best is very solitary. I agree it is a big help if you can just find one person you can really gel with. You have to try and make up the lack elsewhere.

Many Masters courses are made up of final year undergraduate work in that subject. Really, they are better as specialisms or transfers from different subjects. The taught part of my MPhil was made up almost entirely of final year undergrad lectures. That was fine for me as it was a new field - but would have been a waste for someone with a degree in that topic (warning - the only student on my course with a degree in the subject actually managed to fail!). If you dropped out could you get your fees back? If not - just persevere.

Fabulous - another successful escape through the long tunnel of writing up.

My husband will be VERY pleased to see the end of this blasted thesis writing malarky. I'm not working - but splitting my time between childcare and writing up and feeling as though I never give either one enough.

It's a piece of cake compared to potty training **shudder**. I swear it's going to give me post-traumatic stress disorder.

I don't think it's helpful to see it as a sacrifice - it's just a choice. To me, you still seem pretty young too! Plenty of time for a couple of kids.

I didn't buy our first house until I was 38 (too much travelling and chopping and changing jobs). We are a bit behind our peers and on the equity/savings front (no savings actually) but that was how we chose to live and you can't (usually) have it both ways.

I think we are all to some extent pulled in two directions: travelling and new experiences vs a home, kids and financial security. One usually takes precedence over the other at any one time. It was the former for me for many years, but now the latter. Is your partner on a similar life-track? It helps if you are reasonably in sync.

I also feel very invisible this year and I also worry that this won't help be get a job. In the end though, I just have to get this blasted thing finished (which means working at home in my cave) and I don't have time to float around the dept.

I am in the same situation and I am taking the 'hibernating with my thesis' approach. I am postponing papers and funding applications until it's submitted which will mean probably a year out before a postdoc. I'm hoping to do some teaching during that time. I am very antsy about papers - that's one thing I might try to do some of earlier, but overall I just want to submit. I was hoping for Xmas but realistically I think March.

I will be looking at conferences for next year but you don't always want to present new work for the first time at a conference if you would prefer it to get into a journal rather than conference proceedings. That's one reason why I haven't pushed that. Funding is heavily influenced by papers, so after submission, papers are the priority. I'm trying to frame my chapters so that they are basically papers and hopefully that will enable me to get one or two papers submitted over the next few months.

My daughter starts school next year so it actually might work well if I'm not working full time at least during her first term - and my husband can support us financially. If you are very keen to be working full-time a year from now then you really need to be applying from now. Or be prepared to take anything you can get for a year while you apply for the next year.

You might have more success posting this on the parenting boards - of which there are many but here's a popular one:

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?#topic_list

I think I see what you mean. Perhaps you should ask more specifically for advice or direction and see how she responds. If it's hopeless - consider a change.

Bit confusing. You say your SV has no knowledge of your topic but later say she is the only one who does have that knowledge. Is it that she doesn't understand the topic or is it that she isn't taking an interest in it? It sounds as though you are basically not getting any supervision. I think it's unwise to appoint a spouse as a co-SV.

If you are self-funded it should be fairly easy to change SVs and project - if not - then it might be very difficult and funding will not be added for the extra time you will undoubtedly need.

I'm also unsure about losing interest due to lack of direction. That would be a major warning bell to me as a potential SV if a potential student said that.