Hi
I'm 36, have 3 kids aged 6 and under, and run a small training company delivering leadership training 5 days a month. Based on your experience have I got room for a PhD and how much of my time will it take? I think I can do it but don't have enough facts yet! Help!
Thanks

Would you be looking at full time or part time?

Its very hard to say, I haven't got kids, I have a 5 year old sister in law and can't imagine trying to cope with 3 of her running about and delivering training.

Is there anyone else there to support with the kids and if so how much?

How much prep does the training require? - are you at a stage where you can roll up at the start time and be prepared, without a few days beforehand getting stuff ready?

I'm lacking in proper PhD understanding at the moment - I need to understand the difference between part-time and full-time. I have loads of support (husband) and i am at the roll-up and just deliver training stage!
I have been scouring the web but not quite making sense of it all. Help apppreciated!:-)

the training should be no problem then - its the prep time I find that annoys me.

Is your hubby a full time house husband? i.e. is it your responsibility to look after the kids 9-5? or his?

A full time PhD usuall takes 3 years - I say takes 3 years, you are usually funded/enrolled for 3 years - whether it actually gets done in that time is a different matter.
YOu will find working styles vary, some people might get away with not doing much work, I'd say the majority of people work long days and most work weekends. When writing up you need a quiet place to work and it is likely that that part of the process will be very intense i.e. working at least 9-10 hours a day and at weekends - but that could just be me!

If it's full-time, am I based in the uni, doing "work" , or at home working on research and thesis, just doing it quicker than part-time - sorry I really am at the early stage of this process!

I *think* part time - its like 6 years??? I assume.

Where and how you work will depend on you and your supervisor/uni. My supervisor is quite happy for me to work at home - I live 2 hours away from my uni, so its a hassle to go in, although she does get a little bit uppity if I haven't seen her in a few weeks. So I have a home office and work at home most days a week. I make sure I set up meetings with my supervisor reasonably frequently. Although doing this, you tend to miss out on opportunities at the uni e.g. teaching, training, job opportunities etc that is useful for an academic career, because you're not showing your face enough.

I would imagine that if you are thinking of working at home AND looking after 3 kids you'd need to hire an au pair or something - a PhD is about thinking so I don't think you can work with 3 kids running about around you - although I'm not a parent.

I work full time and have two kids, 6 and 5 and am enrolled part time in the PhD. I have found it is a case of juggling what you need to get done. I don't read anything for pleasure anymore, I don't watch telly anymore. They argue that you can do a PhD based on approx 20 hours a week part time, though I have found this varies from week to week and is heavily affected by when I have a meeting with my supervisor. It should take me between 5 and 8 years to finish the PhD and I am funded for 8 years.

A lot depends on what your subject is - if you are in science (or some social science like Psychology) then you will need to be in the university in labs and things but in other subejcts you can do a lot of it at home. I work full time as a lecturer (with a two and a half hour round trip commute by car) and am doing my PhD (geography) part-time; my children are a bit older (11 & 9) but in some ways are more demanding now (school hours are less conducive to working paretns than nurseries or nannies). I tend to focus on PhD outside term time and holidays get planned around my fieldwork research.