I have already added this to the 'prospective phd student' thread but 'current phders' I think will be more useful to me,

Hiya, I have a meeting lined up with some prospective supervisors. They all seem very inspiring people. I am really enthusiastic about my subject area and I know that doing a PhD is the right thing for me for a research career. But I need this to fit in with my life as a mother. I don't feel too comfortable with asking the supervisors about this for fear that they will think I am not committed enough so I thought I would ask you people about your experiences.
For example, I like to be able to pick my daughter up from school at 330pm which would mean I couldn't be at uni after 230pm. Also I would like to not be working during the school holidays. I do have the support of my husband, parents and friends so this is not hard and fast but in general I want to be my daughters main carer.
Any parents done a PhD?
Any one - how many hours/ day days/week are you in uni? How much holiday do you/ can you take?


Thanks in advance for your help (sprout)

Hi Spandangle

How many hours you're on campus depends in part on your field - if you're in science and doing a lab based Phd, your on-campus hours could be different to others. I'm in social sciences and am on campus once or twice a month - I do most of my work from home. This is the beauty of research - the hours are flexible. If you need to pick up your daughter each day, do it, and do it even if you need to be in a lab. Tell your supervisors your hours - the ones I know have very flexible working hours and are fine with everyone else working flexibly too. I go to the gym during the day most days, and then work at night - so I tailor the hours to suit my needs. Most people I know in social sciences do this.

I'm on a scholarship which states that I can have 4 weeks a year holiday - so your amount of holidays will also depend on funding. If you're self-funding, take as many holidays as you need to, but remember that you do need to put in essentially full-time hours over pretty much a working year if you want to complete within 3 years.

ah thanks sue - that's what I was hoping the answer would be!! Except for..gulp!!..4 weeks holiday a year! that's like work:-(
but i spose for school holidays I could just be with my daughter in the day and do home based phd work in the evenings/night - and not call that holiday

and i am engineering/ science/ a bit multi-disc so depending on exactly my topic I suspect I will be lab based so probably required in more than most

Hi Spandangle - I think different disciplines affect how often you'll be on campus. I'm in humanities working on ancient literature and I work mainly from home except for teaching and attending classes, going in only about 3 times a week and only in term time. Most of those days it's only for a few hours or so. On top of this there's obviously library time but as that can be as flexible as you want it's reasonable that you should be able to time most things around your daughter. I take about the same amount of holiday as my fiancé who is in an office job, but I do know people who don't do PhD work over the summer, for example, because they're doing other subject-related things. Provided you can really put in the time during school terms and perhaps some evenings/weekends over the school holidays to keep things ticking over, it sounds very reasonable and plenty of people successfully juggle the two! Good luck with your applications!

Yes, the scholarship letter says 4 weeks holidays a year, but I know other students who take more than this. There was a thread on this recently, just before Xmas - have a search for that for how many holidays others take too. There's also been other threads on how many hours people work, patterns of work, combining work and family etc.

Hi there! Just to re-iterate what the others have said really. A lot does depend on your subject- I do Clinical Psychology and I tend to be in the office from 9.30am until somewhere between 5.30-7pm Mon-Fri, and also travel to see research participants between these hours. Sometimes I work at weekends too. To some extent I could re-arrange my time and possibly work from home sometimes and outside of these hours, but there are some things that really can only be done inside these hours, so it's important to sort out a routine that works for you and try to be flexible. There would probably be some things (meetings, superivision etc) that you might have to attend after 2.30pm if other people can't arrange it to suit your needs, but hopefully you could fit things around your family routine reasonably well. I take about 5 weeks holiday per year. I am not on a contract so I can really take whatever I want so long as my research is running on schedule, but I know some funding councils specify that you can have 5 or 6 weeks holiday or whatever, so it depends where your funding will be from to some extent. A fellow PhD student on my team is a single mother and looks after her two young children whilst doing her PhD. She is managing really well and is due to complete on time later this year, so it can definitely be done! Hope your meeting goes well! KB

If you are registered as a full-time PhD student then you probably do need to think in terms of putting in the same hours as you would in a fulltime job even if it's flexible - would that be feasible? Given what you say about what you would like to be able to do, would it be possible to do it part-time and get the best of both worlds? I know a couple of parents who decided this was the best route for them, as it took any guilt about leaving early out of the equation.
You mention you have a research career in mind - so there is one other thing worth mentioning even if it's dispiriting. The joy of an academic job is its comparative flexibility, which certainly helps with childcare and other family responsibilities, but what many people don't realise is that academia is a long hours culture as people struggle to combine research, a lot of administrative work and the demands of students, who seem to expect you to be on call 24/7. The post-PhD academic job market is tough (do a search for postings by badhaircut or wjgibson) and so unfortunately employers are able to demand a lot from both job applicants and employees. Given the funding cuts that are coming, I can only see this getting worse. Yes of course it's possible for a mother to do a PhD and have a research career but make sure that both you and your family are aware that it's not an easy option.

full time PhD + leaving at 2:30 everyday= very unrealistic.

not wanting to sound too negative, but in my experience lab based phds you need to be working the full 37.5 hr week +, if not then maybe you could get away with it, for example if its more a reading based phd. that said several close friends of mine (both science) had children and were bascially told if you want to do a Phd deal with the hours bascially. Which in some ways people agree with as if the rest of us left early for example it would be frowned upon. maybe part time would be your best option. and also find a supervisor with children, this changes their attitute entirely!

in reference to holiday time - we were 'allowed' 4. i took one to great disgust of my supervisor.

Oooo...thanks everyone for replying. A very mixed picture!! it seems I will have to be upfront with the supervisors about what they expect...
regarding the hours and doing it part time; I have no problem with putting in full time hours, I just don't want those 9am-5pm and have to be onsite. I work well in the evenings and at night at home.
If I try and do it part time - can you still get funding for that? I thought it had to be full time to be funded?

I shall definitely search previous threads for more info.

Thanks for all your help. It is reassuring that you all have time to be on internet forums ;-)