Difficulties of raising a child while attending school

by Sarah Ryrie

There are difficulties of raising a child while attending post-secondary education.

Jade Underwood, a 19-year-old mother and University of Windsor student, studies social work and woman’s studies at the university while raising her three-year-old son Aiden Underwood. She said the list of difficulties is endless trying to attend school while raising her son.

“It’s a matter of being able to find a way to deal and find balance in order to cope, otherwise, you’ll end up losing your mind,” said Underwood.

Underwood pays over $947 a month on daycare for five full days a week from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“He has to be in daycare otherwise I wouldn’t have time for homework and assignments,” said Underwood.

Underwood said the greatest difficulty of raising a child while in school is missing out on certain things and having to watch your friends get to do the things you want to do.

“I would love to be able to go away for school, go on exchange and go on vacations when everyone goes away to Mexico for spring break,” said Underwood. “Some classes are only offered at night, so I’m left trying to figure out who is going to watch him and if no one can, I have to miss class.”

Iva Hobbs, mother of three children under the age of six, said she is very thankful she finished college before having children.

“Attending school, keeping up my grades and working to pay for school was difficult enough let alone having a child while doing so,” said Hobbs. “I don’t know what I would have done had I got pregnant with my twins during college.”

According to stayteen.org, less than 2 per cent of teenage mothers finish post-secondary education by the time they’re 30 years old.