Studying and family life

Hi,

I am due to start in Sept and was interested to know how you manage child care arragements with your placements/uni timetable etc.

My youngest (3) attends a fab nursery who are really flexible and my eldest starts year 1 in sept. I have quite good family and friend support as well, but I am starting to worry.

Thanks

JoJo x

i'm not an sm yet, but i know what others will give great advice - ollybolly is a legend at childcare advice amongst other stuff!
your uni should give you your full year's timetable (as in what days youwill be in theory/placement, not the actualy hours) at the start of the course - that's the general consensus I believe. this can help you make plans for the year.
well done at getting onto a course!!!
A x

Hey Jojo,

Childcare is tough, definately, you need to be organised and a good childcare provider (which you have so that is good!)

Course information is given, but there are times when you won't know exactly what is going on sometimes until quite late in the day, so the flexibility comes in then as there is no choice but for us to wait until we know.

You will soon get used to those things as i hope your nursery will!

If you have family and friend support too, that helps!

My childminder is brilliant, so much so that my two are starting a new school in September to keep him! (long story ) He plans my academic year and is laways understanding about my shifts getting received quite late sometimes (tho tbh the allocations midwife is very on the ball!)

For the first six weeks you'll be in uni on specific days, you'll find these out in your introductory week, from then on you'll be wating for your placement trusts to be orgnised to know where you're going to be placed, hopefully you'll get the nearest one to you, so keep your nursery updated with news as soon as you get it!

Good luck, you'll be fine once you get started, if you need any help or info, please feel free to contact me!

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smwife seems to have it covered! It can be really hard at times - but where theres a will theres a way! (We've moved another 30 miles away from uni for child care!) There were very few of us in our cohort that had to do nights for the first couple of placements - which eased us into it a bit!!

Hiya people, new to the boards and need a little advise on this subject, im filling in my UCAS forms at the moment...

The area i want to work in is Perinatal mental health / Birth trauma. Fine and dandy. I have the options, Midwifery AN and RMN. Midwifery is my first love, always has been. But, and here is the but, a few years ago i became a single mum. no big deal.. yeah, a single mum to 4 children. next year they will be ages 5 up to 14. I have little to no family support. An ex that is in the Navy, so non there either. I will be well and truly doing this on my own......

just how close to death will this course leave me?

to say im dertermined would be an understatment, i have been trying to get this far for years, even sat the DC test a life time ago, each ucas form brought with it a pregnancy... . Yeah, not a chance of it happening again...

Anyways, after having a chat with recruitment from NEWI, they said i should ask people in the same boat, so here i am...

TIA

Sherry x

I am applying for Sept 09 start, and I am fortunately not a single parent so I have no words of advice or experience for you. I admire your determination and think that will take you al long long way! There are a lot of us on here with small children and we all have issues and concerns with who will look after them when we get there etc etc etc, One step at a time. Good luck x x

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Hi Sherry

I am still only a newbie Student Midwife and so far the childcare has been ok, but this might change in just over a weeks time when I start my placement. That is when i'm sure the fun will begin.

My eldest is at school and my youngest is at a really good nursery. I have also organised a childminder who can look after my children before and after school and she is quite flexible (at the moment!). I do have a partner who is able to look after the girls when I will have to do a night shift but you can get childminders that are registered to look after children over night. I think it is quite pricey tho.

I'm sorry that I cannot give you any valuable advice but I am sure someone else will be able to help.

Good luck with everything.

x

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.....
CCCU Sept 08

A have a very naive question - how feasible would something like an au pair be?

I honestly have no idea how much that would cost, if you have the household space, etc but I understand that you can get (up to?) 85% of childcare costs, and if a live-in support is the only possible option... has anyone gone down this route?

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ooo an Au pair would be a dream! haha.

I know i have to move, seems next year is going ot be interesting...

oh and while we're on the subject, anyone in Bangor Uni?