The Current Summer 20

I were to bring my son along with me,
and that usually just ends up with people
staring at me. I am unable to go out of state
or travel the world on internships and
volunteering opportunities. It gets lonely
when not many people understand it all.”
Finding a give-and-take is something
student parents struggle with every day.
We only have so much time between
work and school, and sometimes we have
to choose between reading the books
our child thrusts at us and finishing our
homework on time. We become worried
about things like missing important
milestones in our childrens’ lives or making
our children feel like we don’t want to be
around them when we choose schoolwork
over playtime.
10 SUMMER 2020
Brittany Duba had her son at age 25, just
weeks before starting a grueling threeyear
program at Lansing Community
College. Duba had to find a good balance
between motherhood and studenthood, and
sometimes that was a struggle.
“I struggled with ‘mom guilt’ when I had to
leave for long periods of time and not see
my son nearly as much as I wanted to,” said
Duba. “I also had to stop breastfeeding
quite early because it was hard to balance
with long classes as well as the hour-long
drive I had between school and home, so
that made me feel really guilty, as well as
added expense.”
For Hooper, it wasn’t about balancing time
but balancing emotions.
“I had to take time away from my family
to get good grades and graduate,” said
Hooper. “I had to stop feeling guilty
because I was spending more time at
school and work than I was with my infant.
I had to stop feeling guilty for something
that was necessary to move forward.”
Being a student parent comes with
challenges that most students never have
to consider, such as childcare, doctor’s
appointments, proper child development,
extra expenses for diapers, formula and
middle-of-the-night wake-ups. Our days
are long, busy and exhausting.
For Reilly, her day starts well before the
sun is up.
“A typical day for me is waking up at 5:30
a.m., getting my school supplies and my
son’s diaper bag out to my car and starting
my car to allow it to warm up for him,” said
Reilly. “I go inside and get myself ready.
I then proceed to get some milk in his
sippy cup before I wake him up and grab
a diaper, a sweatshirt for him and some
slippers. We leave around 6:30 a.m., and
I make a 20-minute drive from our house in
Mason to his daycare in Dansville to drop
him off. I then drive 30 minutes to campus,
where I park in the commuter lot and wait
for the bus to come get me and take me to
my 8 a.m. class. I have some hour breaks
in-between certain classes and will go sit in
my car and catch up on homework. I then
proceed to go to work after my last class is
done. I get out of work at 5 p.m. when the
office closes and ride the bus back to my
car, where I go straight to daycare and
pick him up because they close at 6 p.m.
We go home, and I make him dinner and
play with him in-between trying to get some
homework done before I take him off to bed
at 9 p.m.”
Reilly’s day sounds like a normal day to me,
a mother with a son the same age as hers
and an MSU commuter, but to countless