The College Experience of a Mother of Two
by Kathy Suarez | Thursday, Feb 03, 2022
Endless papers, exams, lectures, and studying. Does this sound like your average collegestudent’s life? You might be saying to yourself “it sure does sound like my life as a student”. Iwould have to say I agree with you, it’s your average college student’s life. But now let me tellyou about my life and experiences as a college student. No doubt my life consists of everything Imentioned above. But now I would like you to add two kids with special needs into the basicnorms of a college student's average responsibilities. No doubt everyone has their ownchallenges in life, but my college experience is a chosen experience that I decided to take on.
But what could that possibly mean? I didn’t make the decision to have children with specialneeds. Well, for me it simply means that I decided that it was more important to pursue a careerthat I’m passionate about than to settle with challenges that I have. Being a mother and wife incollege is a very difficult task. You are constantly multitasking your time, energy, and money tobe able to keep afloat. Mommy guilt is a real thing, as a mother, you want your children to feelthat they have your attention all the time (or at least partly). You also want to feel like you canhandle anything that comes your way. But it is a struggle that many moms in college feel. Sowhy should a parent go back to school anyway? Why add more stress to your life than needed?Some would even say being a mother is a full-time job anyway.
Well, I would say that to those who are feeling torn and unsure if they should go back to school, or to complete school, to consider what your education can mean to your family, and most importantly, to you. So often, mothers sacrifice so much for our families and little for ourselves. I say as moms in college we should continue and fight hard to make our place at our university. Don’t settle for what others believe our role as a mother or father should be. Support one another with our emotional and educational resources. It's important and vital that we see ourselves not just by race and culture but also by our circumstances so we can show other mothers and fathers that if we can do it, so can they.


