It can be difficult to balance school work with home and career, but with a strong sense of commitment and proper planning it can be accomplished. When I made the decision to return to school, I knew I would have to come up with a plan to balance everything in my life. I found that being organized and having a plan was the key to balancing my home life, my career and my schoolwork. After I made the decision to return to school, I didn't realize right away the time I would need to invest to accomplish this goal I had set for myself. I was aware of the financial investment, and I had no problems with that, but I had not counted on the time I would need to study and complete my assignments. I am married with 2 girls still at home. My husband is retired with a disability, and my daughters are 22 and 16. The older one has a full time job and the younger one is in high school with a part time job on the weekends. Everyone in my house (including me) had fallen into the habit of letting mom take care of household chores and cooking. I also have a demanding career in management that I enjoy, but can be physically and mentally draining at times. We had fallen into a routine and I was about to shake that up with my decision to return to school.
My husband was very supportive of my decision and part of my planning was for the both of us to develop a schedule that would give me time for both home and schoolwork. I am lucky that with my position at work I know when I will be home and when a project will require more of my time at the office. My career was my first priority, and since my husband was going to take on more of the household chores I realized that I no longer had to worry about grocery shopping and doing laundry. He had taken over those tasks for me. Since he does have a disability, he was not able to do everything I usually do, so our second step was to sit down with our daughters and let them know what was expected of them in our new normal.