Your husband wants to switch careers and has to return to formal education, and being the supportive partner you are, you agree to help, but what does that mean for you? Will you have to cancel all social outings and vacations whilst he goes back to the books? Do you have to suffer financially? The following are five ways to help your back-to-school husband without having to put your life on hold.
Keep an Eye on the Money
There is no getting around that having one less income is going to affect you in many ways. If you have a large family with multiple children to support that obviously gets harder, especially with the cost of tuition always on the up. There are options for financial support available if that’s something you’re interested in availing of. Student loans from private lenders give students the opportunity to invest in higher education without having to stress about making repayments now. You both can come up with a plan to pay back the repayments monthly when he begins to earn again.
Include His Studies in the Family Schedule
Normalizing keeping track of deadlines and study periods as part of the household schedule will not only benefit him educationally, but it will prove a good example to your children. The sooner children get used to creating a schedule, the better as having good organizational skills is essential in so many parts of everyday life. It will also mean that your husband won’t feel as left out if he has to skip a trip to the movies to go to a lecture or miss a sports game to attend a seminar and it will highlight to your children how important his downtime is as they will see that he is just as busy as they are.
Maintain a Long-Term Mindset
This is probably the hardest thing to do on this list, because it requires active regular work to remind yourself that this is the best thing for him, you, the household and the family. When you aren’t getting support when it comes to wrangling the kids for bath and bedtime, you will want to scream at him to help but try to bite it back and remember – he is doing this for everyone. Especially if he is learning a language, because foreign trade is only going to increase the more technology and transport increases and learning a second language is hard to do.
Support His Study by Doing Your Own
There are so many courses you can do from home, so while he is spending time reading books and writing essays, why don’t you support him by taking the time to work on the household finances, or do a course to learn a new skill? You can learn a new language, learn how to build a website or better your cooking skills with a course on home-cooked meals – the choices are endless.
Remind Him to Eat
A lot of people, especially when they are studying, don’t have the time/inclination to feed and water themselves properly because they are so focused on what they are doing. In the same way you remind your kids around exam time that they need to take regular breaks for exercise and hydration, do the same with your husband. If you have a family dog, maybe encourage him to walk it once a day so he can get out of the house and clear his mind for his next study session.
