Thanks guys. Seems there is a significant difference of opinion :/.
Ginger, it's on campus. There is an online course that's part time over 2 years but it requires compulsory attendance at a residential school for 5 days 3 times over the whole duration of the course and it's in rural NSW (I'm in Victoria). So rather than do a course over 2 years online and have to attend residential schools I prefer to get the course over and done with on campus over a year.
~Hestia~, I can't defer the course, I would have to withdraw and then re-apply. Something I wish to avoid! Hence the confusion.
Babyluv, I do have inlaws I can keep bub with whenever I need extra studying time or during classes and if my mum stops working then I can leave bubs with her too. My husband would help take care of bub on weekends/weeknights whenever I would need it but if bub is a baby at the time then it will still need me to breastfeed it.
I finished my bachelor's last year and a 3 year degree took me 5 years because I didn't have any motivation. After I got married dh helped heaps with the motivation and after I got pregnant I decided I wanted to be an actual psychologist rather than settle with just a psych degree that I can't do much with unless I do some further study.
So while I am more motivated to study now, I don't really know *how* motivated I will be especially with a baby that needs constant TLC, etc. I wouldn't know how I'd handle studying post grad (which is quite full on from what my friend told me, she's doing her honours this year) without a baby let alone with one. So while I do want to do this post grad sooner rather than later, I'm just not sure if I will handle studies better with a baby or a toddler. The thing with waiting for baby to become a toddler is ideally I would like to be pregnant again 1.5-2 years (max) after this bub is born.
I guess at this stage rather than applying for 2014 intake for February, I should wait and see how I handle baby and then possibly apply for mid-year intake in 2014. That way I'll have had at least 6 months with my bub and have a better understanding of whether or not I can do it all.
It seems from the answers so far that there are split opinions about studying with a baby or toddler. I guess it's one of those things that's different depending on the person and the child and the study etc. and there's no single right answer (unfortunately for me lol).
Last edited by Dot Face; August 12th, 2013 at 08:50 PM.
Mid year intake sounds like a good plan. My first baby took a lot of energy but when he reached toddlerhood he would happily entertain himself, my second was the complete opposite and while he was a fantastic baby (you wouldn't even know he was in the house!) he certainly makes me work now he is 20 months!
I did postgrad (off campus) with a toddler, got pregnant and just scraped through the semester due to awful morning sickness. Then I picked it up again with a toddler and newborn (about 4 weeks at start of semester), and that was just do-able (1 subject). Baby grew up, stopped sleeping all day and suddenly it wasn't so do-able. So I stopped
My advice, for what it's worth, is that you want to be very passionate about what you're doing. You'll be studying not just with a newborn, but for a few years after that, plus you'll have your supervision etc. You'll also be making sacrifices in terms of how much you see the kids and you're really going need to fall back on the fact you're passionate about what you're doing.
I feel your pain with having a reasonably useless undergrad psyc degree
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