Notes From the Trenches: Paying Tuition & Childcare or How to Spend All Your Money

This is a guest post from Rebecca, a mom of two who will start law school this fall.

Enrolling in law school can be a controversial choice. I expected to receive at least some blowback, especially since I will be selfishly abandoning my children to advance a career. Here's my beloved grandmother on the subject:

Your children, so dependent on you now, may hate you in 15 years! This is your most precious time to feel like a real woman. And I know, once you get that law degree you will have a job in which you find even less fulfillment and you will spend your days litigating fights of one kind or another. And you will start at the bottom. You think you are going to make a difference in the world--"help people?"--but think of the difference you will make for generations by raising your children who are right in front of your eyes."

That's just a little taste. My grandma has an ideological objection to the legal profession. But you have to admit it's impressive that she's in her eighties and emails me regularly. But, I was somewhat surprised by the cascade of news articles I found suggesting that graduating law students suddenly were having quite a bit of trouble finding jobs, especially jobs with high enough salaries to pay down the six-figure debts they now owed to their schools.

There was that guy from Boston College who wrote an open letter to the school asking for his money back, articles in the New York Times about how law students get gamed by the system, and the general recognition that schools are currently accepting many more students than the legal market will accommodate. I also discovered the expanding community of blogs -- with names like LawSchoolScam and But I Did Everything Right! -- devoted to warning "0Ls" (really?) to run, not walk, away from law school.

In the face of such negativity, I was forced to ask myself (and my lawyer friends) why none of it would apply to me. A friend of my husband's had some very encouraging (enabling) advice: "Here's the thing about the 'not enough jobs for lawyers' argument. It actually is 'there's not enough jobs for incompetent lawyers.' You're going to be a competent one, I'm sure. In general, my lawyer friends with jobs think it's a good idea for me to go to law school. The ones who were disappointed with law school or don't have jobs have been, well, less positive.

My husband and I decided that I would only go to law school if we didn't have to take on any debt for me to do it. That seemed doable. I knew I'd be charged the reduced tuition for in-state residents. I crossed my fingers for a big scholarship, and I got one. Strangely, in the award letter there was no mention of the conditions for keeping my scholarship. Watch, I'll call the Office of Student Affairs and be told I must maintain a GPA of 3.8.

The real cost of law school for me (us), though, are childcare costs of ~$1400/month for my two kids, ages 3 and 21 months. I've had complete control over my kids' environment since my daughter was born, so it's kind of a big deal to me to give that up. I suppose that's why we're taking on a monthly payment that exceeds our mortgage to send our toddlers to an "academy."

So I hope I can keep that scholarship. But just recently, another mom who graduated from the school I'll be attending told me, "you won't be in the top ten percent, you know, because you have kids." Maybe they should have put that in my award letter? "Parents: don't bother."

Notes From the Trenches: A Day in the Life of a Law School Mom

This is a guest post from Leigh, a second-year law school mom.

Juggling law school with kids is tough. My husband and I have our schedules so precisely worked out that even a wedding planner would cringe. Law school is demanding of your time. Children are demanding of your time. There is a competition for attention that takes place between the two, and you need to figure out a realistic balance.

My husband works fulltime and I am in school fulltime, so our daughter is in daycare during the week. My husband has also been kind enough to take on full parenting responsibilities over most of the weekend. I do almost, if not all, of the following week’s reading then. You need a good chunk of uninterrupted time to read for your classes, as the amount of concentration required is insane.

I also outline throughout the semester instead of at the end of it, and I start working on research papers much, much earlier than their due dates. We do have a wonderful sitter who watches our daughter if I need extra study time during the week, which is incredibly helpful.

So, what’s a day like? Here’s a fun-filled sample schedule.

6:30: Wake-up, sort of. Get crying child from crib and change her. Attempt to force my eyelids open and stumble downstairs to make breakfast. Child gets real food for breakfast. We get coffee. Eyelids actually open post-coffee consumption.

7:00: Husband takes messy post-breakfast toddler upstairs for bath. I prep food for daycare and husband’s lunch. Whirlwind of getting ready follows.

8:00: Hopefully have left the house by now and am dropping daughter off at day care. Drive back home and get bag ready for school if I didn’t clean up my study mess from the night before (high probability).

8:30: Leave house and walk to law school. Listen to iPod on the way – is this a form of “me” time? Oh wait… day care is calling to inform me of a disturbing bowel movement my child just had. Thanks, daycare.

9:00: Usually have classes starting around now. If not, go to library and work on outlines. Realize I have grabbed container of toddler puff snacks instead of adult food snacks. Eat them anyway.

12:30: Lunch break. Walk back home, let dogs outside, and eat lunch. Then head back to school for any afternoon classes. If I don’t have afternoon classes that day, research for any papers I have due that semester. Fantasize about taking daytime naps.

4:00: Have to leave school by this point. Walk back home and get car, drive to pick daughter up. Hope dogs don’t hear me leaving in the car and start howling.

4:30: Afternoon playtime with daughter. This includes, but is not limited to, puzzles, cuddles, chasing daughter who is chasing dogs, coloring, cleaning up coloring on walls/floors, occasional stroller jogging.

6:30: Husband home. Make dinner for everyone. Attempt to clean up house and throw in a load of laundry. Bicker over who is less tired and has to take dogs on walk/run. Threaten an extra household cleanup duty for whoever does not take dogs out. Cave in and take dogs, cross fingers that laundry is switched when I get back.

8:00: Get daughter ready for bed. Ultimate bedtime resistance kicks in with daughter. Bedtime success after 30-minute refusal to lie down. Notice new chip in wall from child banging crib rail against wall during ultimate bedtime resistance.

8:45: Bring out casebooks for next day classes. Although I have usually read all of that week’s reading over the weekend, still need to refresh on reading. Contemplate falling asleep on couch instead.

10:00: Have actually fallen asleep on couch. Curse self. Continue reading where I left off, and then promptly fall asleep again. Couch is so comfortable.

Unknown hour: Leave couch, drag self up to bed. Later on awake with highlighter mark on face and post-it tab stuck to hand. Also notice piece of daughter’s macaroni and cheese dinner matted in hair. Lovely.