We survived the summer: PhD and parenting

 We survived the summer: PhD and Parenting

It’s the end of the last full week of the summer holidays and time to reflect on what I’ve achieved during these holidays.

Now I could say nothing. After all I have a four year old in tow most of the time, but that would be a little porky pie. In fact I’ve done more than I expected and most of it has been down to planning and lowering expectations (and a little bit of luck). 

No trip to Filey would be complete without a trip to Scarborough

The holidays started with a week away in sunny Filey.  Whilst Northampton seemed to be going through monsoon season, I was away in a caravan in Yorkshire. I'd promised myself this year that I wouldn't take any work with me.  However, I did take a few bits of reading and managed to come up with a
bit of a plan of action whilst I was away. 

The Plan

Since Chloe had finished nursery (I could've kept her in but it would've meant paying for two weeks when she wouldn't have attended and only returning for two weeks so it just wasn't worth it - don't get me started on the cost of childcare during the school holidays) I'd got to work around her being at home and she is no longer the baby/toddler that I could sit in front of Cbeebies with a few toys around her to keep her entertained.  She wants attention and feeding and interaction now. So I had to come up with things I could do that wouldn't cause too much issues if I had to stop mid way through to supply endless snacks to a four year old. The best thing I could do, apart from try to plough through my current library books, would be to readdress my filing system. Especially as my focus has now changed since setting it up (I will write an up to date blog post about my filing system in the next few weeks -  I've had a hard drive malfunction so it's as good a time as any to revisit it). 

I also wanted to do some writing on the approaching women's history in a local context.  This would be a good exercise to deal with the literature I had been going through in recent months as well as connecting it with my local history specialism.  

The last task I wanted to tackle (when I say I wanted - I was hoping someone had already done it but they hadn't) was to create a sort of family tree/connections chart of the Northampton boot and shoe families.  This would not only help with my research but would be an interesting visual guide. 

What have I done

Firstly, I've done some writing.  Not much but some.  After a week away my husband has a second week at home which I use to get as much work as possible done.  This really helps (I do this at Christmas too).  I've done around 1500 words which doesn't seem a lot but for the holidays it's really good. As any student/writer/academic will tell you the hardest part of writing is finding time to write. I have been joining in with the Womens History Network writing retreats on a Friday morning which have been really useful.  It gives me a regular slot that I can sit down and write so I know I'm going to do some writing each week. They've been on a break for the summer as well so I've got out of the habit of sitting down on a Friday but from next week they return which will hopefully get me back in that habit.  I like that they're on a Friday because it means that I can include any research I've done throughout the week in the writing on that day.

I've also started organising my notes a bit better.  I'm a bit of a paper fiend and print out a lot of my notes or handwrite them and file them in folders.  As has been proven this week with my hard drive malfunction this is actually a life saver at times because it means that although I have lost files on my laptop I still have a physical copy.  As I have said, I will do a post of my filing system in the next few weeks but it's been good to revisit some of it. I've also been typing up notes.  When you have a four year old to entertain in the holidays it's helpful to leave these tasks until then because they don't take as much concentration. 

I've read a few of my library books, although I've still got a bit pile to look at.  However, as this takes a bit more brain power I will blitz the one I have when Chloe starts school. 

So as you can see I've only done a few little tasks but feel I've been able to keep afloat with what needs to be done.   I didn't make a list this year, although I do love a good list. However, that will be something I will do in the next few weeks 

How do I get things done with a four year old?

With great difficulty I hear you cry lol. I'm fairly lucky with Chloe in that because she's spent so much time with me when I'm researching/studying she used to having to entertain herself. However, now she's a little older she wants more attention.  I find that things like play doh and kinetic sand can keep her entertained for about an hour at a time. Chloe doesn't like colouring or drawing, she finds it boring, so activity books are not usually an option.  However, she does like sticker books, particularly dressing dolly ones.  I don't get as much time out of these though as she will often need help getting the stickers of the sheets. 

She loves little figures and has lots of LOL dolls, sylvanian families, happy land and paw patrol figures and will spend a lot of time playing with these. This is a good activity but can be very noisy so is something she does when I'm doing little bits like sorting filing etc because, despite me spending years working in noisy offices, a four year old shouting about saving a rabbit from impending doom can be quite distracting. 

What I Plan to Do Next

What are my plans for the next year? 

Certainly up to at least half term I plan to blitz the newspapers in the local library.  Now the restrictions have lifted this is something that I will need to spend a lot of time doing. I'm also planning to try to get at least one trip into the Archives even if it's just to go through the card collection to search for archives on the people I'm researching as this is something I haven't been able to do since I started researching the women so I am still unsure that there is enough for just a chapter or my whole thesis. 

I will also be trying to make a big start on this family tree/connection chart. This is likely to feature a lot on both my Twitter and Instagram because I feel it is going to be a monster task, plus who doesn't love seeing a wall covered in post it notes. 

I’ve got a few things in the pipeline that I want to consider (papers etc) but I will update you with those when it comes to it

In the meantime, I’m off to clean up my living room as I don’t think I’ve seen the floor since July.

Bye for now