Frankly, I have no idea how those with young children do PhDs, so all credit to them...

It is hard with kids, possibly in a different way, I don't know..... I have 3 kids, I started my BA when my youngest was 11 months, they are now 17, 16 and 6 years old and trying to give them all they need while at the same time running a house (I also have a menagerie) making sure I don't ignore my husband, doing my p/t RA position and a f/t PhD can sometimes feel like utter hell. Nothing gets the 100% it deserves and so you feel that you're letting everything down that little bit and pulled in a million ways at once. I have got a bit fed up sometimes with young students (no offence!!!) especially at BA when I had a baby moaning they were tired and worn out - I wanted to scream lmao - my baby never slept, no more than 2 hours at a time and never during the day til she was gone 3, I had the other two young as well and I look back and wonder quite how I did it - still can't work it out lol.

I love the mechanic analogy - very good :-) Not sure it works with my discipline lol but yeh, 'doctors' work very hard, they go through a lot of training (not as much as we do though) and I have utter respect for them but I get really cross when my work and my (hopefully) eventual title is poo-pooed on the grounds that I'm not going to be a 'real' dr. My grandmother told me the other day that I shouldn't even call myself 'Dr' when I finally graduate as I'd be taking the title from people who deserve it!:-s She isn't someone you can ever reason with, and quite frankly I wouldn't want to bother, she's bigotted and an inverse snob and keeps telling me that its time I stopped wasting my time and everyone elses and accepted my place and got a job in Tesco - they have some going you know :-s It used to really upset me even many years back when I was at school and she asked me what I wanted O Levels for... but now, well, I really don't care!

Stressed, I think your gran and mine would be best friends!

Hi guys
Thanks soooooooo much for your wonderful replies. And thanks too for your support. I am glad to see you understand my frustration! I love the mechanic analogy and I think it may work well with a few people. Peljam, I will start to ignore the idiots (for being idiots). And Stressed, I'll support you big-time if you ever make an appearance on the 6pm news
Cheers
Pandora:-)(up):p

I get these sort of comments too but usually from people that have no idea what a PhD entails and just see it as something I do in my "spare time". Actually when I started I only had one child (and a bit of spare time) - now I have three children including two baby twins and spare time is like gold dust. Never mind anyone else - if I actually ever finish I will be bloody proud of myself!!! Having said that, before starting I didn't really know quite how hard a PhD was so I can't really criticise others for not realising!

Pjlu: Oh I knooowww what you mean about complaining UG's. I've been lecturing as well whilst doing my PhD and the "I'm tired" moaning - not to mention claims for 'extensions' and 'mitigating circumstances' - is unbelievable. I fell pregnant half way through my MA degree. I submitted a piece of work 2 days before I gave birth and then submitted my thesis 5 days after my baby was born. I then did the final project and finished with a First - didn't claim for one extension. I just thought I was bowling along doing my own thing at the time and certainly wasn't out to prove anything (except to myself that I could do it). But now, listening to some of the many excuses for not meeting deadlines, I'm afraid I don't have a great deal of sympathy unless it's life-or-death.

Sorry, just realised it was stressed who posted the original comment re. BA's.

Don't worry about those comments. I am a clinician (haematology trained) and just started a PhD in basic science and let me tell you, I think it is so much harder than clinical work, I have high respect for scientists and the work and commitment you have. I don't have children yet, because I have no idea how i can fit in full time PhD studies with kids. Let me congratulate you for managing to balance the two!

Minh - nice to hear from a clinician doing a PhD! In the words of Basil Fawlty, "So you're two doctors?".