7 Things To Avoid While Raising A Child During College

7 Things To Avoid While Raising A Child During College

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By BreeAnn
Raising a child and going to school at the same time can be quite a challenge. The fact is that school is hard enough without a kid around to demand your every free minute. Fortunately, you are not the first parent to have attempted this and you certainly won’t be the last. This means that you can learn from other parents and find your own path to success. In this article, we will discuss things to avoid while attending college as a parent so that you can be successful and avoid losing your mind!

Blaming Your Child For Being A Child

An easy mistake to make for parents who are attending college is to get frustrated with their kids. There will inevitably be a moment where everything is just too much. Your motivation will be low, your schedule will be packed, and your child will do something so annoying that you won’t even be able to handle it. Trust us, that moment will come. What you need to remember is to not fault your child for being a child.

When you are concentrating as hard as you can and your kid is being loud or obnoxious, it can get difficult. You might think about how you’ve already asked your child to be quiet, or you might end up convinced that they are conspiring against you with all that racket. At the end of the day, it is important to remember that children will always just be children. Kids are loud, messy, and rambunctious. It might be highlighted when you’re in a bad mood, but it is all a part of the process. Avoid getting too mad at them for interrupting you and instead try to calmly curb the behavior. You’ll be glad that you did later.

Working In Busy Areas

A common issue that parents run into when they first go back to school is not choosing the right place to work. You might think that you have told your kids to leave you alone, but chances are that they will not act accordingly. If you are sitting at the kitchen table trying to study, even if your child doesn’t bother you directly, it is likely that they will be making enough noise to bother you regardless.

In a perfect world, you would work in the family room while your angel of a child quietly spent time entertaining themselves. You would finish studying, completely focused, and then have time to play with them. The reality of working in a busy area, however, is that you will not be able to disconnect from parent mode. This means that you will constantly be checking in on your child and trying to parent them. It’s a distraction, and it isn’t one that you can afford when you are studying. Avoid it at all costs.

Waiting Until The Last Minute

So many students are incredibly guilty of procrastinating. When you’re young and school is your only focus, this is generally an inconvenience at worst. As a parent, it is basically an academic death sentence. Even if you were the best at last-minute work in school before, you cannot afford to risk it as a parent. It will be that moment when you have waited to start the paper until the last day where your child suddenly comes down with a case of the sniffles.

Avoiding waiting until the last minute is so important as a parent in college. Not only does this mean that you will still have time if something goes wrong, but it also means that you will be in a better mood. If you procrastinate and are struggling to meet a deadline, you can safely assume that your family will hear all about it. The last thing that you want is to be the grouchy parent who is snapping at everyone while they struggle to accomplish something that could have been handled the week before. Don’t let this be you.

Leaving Out Your Study Materials

There are so many ways to give yourself a headache as a parent, and leaving out your study materials is one of them. Your study materials are not only important because of their information, but are also important because they will influence the way that your very thought process works. Most of us don’t even realize how dependent we are on certain types of organization or bookmarking for studying until it is way too late. Children have a tendency to make “way too late” come a lot sooner.

You know how you wouldn’t trust your kid near anything expensive? It’s why every parent ends up ushering their kids away from any and all nice things. It isn’t because you don’t want them to see it. It’s because you can’t trust them. Many parents have learned the hard way just how destructive kids can be without meaning to. Whether it is scrambling up your notes so that you lose your spot, closing your book when you hadn’t bookmarked a page, or even drawing pretty pictures on your notes, the fact is that kids can do some serious damage. In order to avoid giving you a reason to be upset with them, keep your school materials safe.

Trying To Have It All

More often than not, if we really want something, it will take sacrifice. The fact is that school is a large commitment and it will take a lot out of you. Unless you’re some miraculous parent who has all the free time that they can dream of, chances are that you are already pretty tight on time. When you commit to something as big as college, you will inevitably have to sacrifice your time somewhere else.

It is nice to imagine a world where school effortlessly fits in and every day is calm and manageable. Unfortunately, real-life seldom works out that way. You might want to be the parent who works, goes to school, raises their kids, keeps a clean home, and has a gym routine. That person sounds amazing on paper, but it is generally not what the average person ends up doing. College is hard and you will need to cut yourself some slack when it comes to what you get done in a day. You don’t have to be a super parent. Be a great parent and a good student. For now, that is more than enough.

Expecting It To Be Easy

Plenty of people who go back to college after some time outside of the academic world make the mistake of assuming that it will be the same when they return. In truth, most people don’t realize that school was easy because it was all they knew until they try and go back after some time away. Is it possible to succeed academically after a little while outside of the education world? Absolutely. Is it easy? Probably not.

The reality is that after you take some time away from school, you will find that pretty much everything has changed. Learning styles have changed. The tools you use to learn will have changed. The students will change. While this is fine and completely manageable, the fact is that it generally comes with a solid period of adjustment. Reminding yourself that it doesn’t have to be easy in order for you to succeed is crucial for finding motivation. Don’t get discouraged because it is hard. Remind yourself how proud you will be when it’s done.

Thinking You Can’t Do It

A lot of people don’t go back to school as a parent because they are afraid that they can’t do it. Despite the amazing amount of inspiring stories online, most individuals find themselves worried about whether or not they can actually pull it off. Why? Well, probably in part because of the inspiring stories online!

The face of the modern parent and student is one that is more about marketing than it is humanity. Internet influencers are taking over in every sector, and when you are constantly looking at this mom who has it all and is going to school, it is all too easy to get discouraged. You might find yourself thinking that you can’t possibly be anything like that picture-perfect Instagram mom who is going to school. Don’t worry. You don’t need to be in order to succeed. You just need to be ready to work hard and put in the time to get that degree while raising your kids at the same time. Plenty of everyday parents are going back to college to chase new dreams. Whether you have a picturesque family, home, and gym routine or not, you can be successful.

Conclusion

Most parents would agree that they are sane and rational people, but sometimes things change when you’re studying for an impossible exam and your child has been singing the same verse of the same song for three hours straight. As you take on the challenge of going to school while raising a child, it is important to remember that you can only do so much. Try to maximize the good decisions and avoid bad ones. It is your best chance when it comes to succeeding.

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