Degree or not Degree?

I would love to have a day of rest. I have worked on a Sunday now for nearly five years and before that I worked on a Saturday For just over fifteen years. All this along with a part time job in the week of 17.5 hours being a Mother to four children and Wife. Then just to complicate things I took it upon myself that I may be able to cope with a degree!

What was I thinking? Well hubby got made redundant and managed to get another job but on half the wages he was previously, and everything went up in cost! So methinks perhaps if I got a degree I would be able to get a better job and perhaps take the pressure off our finances.

Now what worries me is while I am studying I seem to be accruing more debt, earning less and struggling to spend any quality time with my family. I am almost half way through the degree now and really beginning to question if I am doing the right thing or making a huge mistake.

I used to work in a bank and earned a reasonable wage, but a friend of mine who teaches in a college persuaded me that I could do much better and earn more. I do hope she is right and that after all the hard work, commitment and cost of the degree I will reap dividends.

It is a huge step embarking upon a career change and throwing all my eggs in the degree basket. I started off wanting to go into teaching but having seen what the lecturers have to put up with from some students who supposedly want to be there I really feel a career in teaching would result in me loosing my temper big style with people who just do not know when to SHUT UP! furthermore why do they make out that only a few students actually read the texts set by the module leaders. Are we really to believe they write an essay on a text or texts they have not even read?

Well I for one am at work, it is reasonably quiet, so I am able to do some reading and fear I will have to stay up most of the night in order to have read Elizabeth Gaskell by Mary Barton. Only to discover when I get into Uni tomorrow most of the other students will NOT have read it and the lecturer may decide not to deliver the lecture. I have to say it really pisses me off.

The question I am really asking here is "Is it really worth me missing out on my daughters pre school years, weekends away with my boys and the wage I reduced in order to complete the degree?"

I am at loggerheads with myself over this question and really wonder if I will return for year three.