Sometime recently I got the idea in my head that I should get back to school and finish my studies. Leaving things undone has always plagued me and has been wandering in my mind ever since I left school. But being an adult and getting back to school is not as easy as you think. Oh, and did I mention that I am a single father. I have a wonderful little girl who makes me really happy, but it is because of her that I decided to go back to school so I can support her better and make her life happy.

Unfortunately, I soon came to realize that there isn't any information available for single fathers out there. There is a lot of information for women though, not to sound sexist, but I had a lot of problems rummaging through all the info I was able to find because all was offered to support single moms. In the end, I found some useful pages on Kingged. They're for moms working from home, but they offered a lot of valuable info for me. Who knew that it could be so hard to find help for single fathers who want to go back to school?

After a lot of research, I finally found a way and organized everything so I was able to take care of my baby girl, go to school, have time to study, and find time to rest. The final one was the hardest one to incorporate in my schedule, but in the end, one has to make sacrifices if you want a better life for you and your daughter.

If you are a single parent like me and want to improve your life by getting your diploma, don't despair and most importantly don't give up. The beginning is always the hardest but it gets easier once you realize everything that you need to do. I don't want to say that you get used to it, but I can say that it gets easier. I offer valuable advice to everybody who is in a similar situation like me because I know how tough it was for me to do this.

Make Sure that You Have Lots of Support

Getting back to school at my age is hard. I imagine it would be hard for anybody to do that at this point in their lives. But many people have done it already so why shouldn't you. I mean, I managed it in the end even though I thought of giving up many times.

The thing that made me go through all of it is support! Make sure that you have a lot of support from your friends and family. If they understand what you are doing and how important this is for you it will be easy to find motivation and actually do it.

If you get to a low point, make sure that you have somebody you can call and talk to. For me, it was my mum and my best friend who always reminded me of the reason that I started doing this in the first place. Of course, there was my daughter as well. She didn't really understand what was going on and why daddy needed to read a bunch of books and leave her a bunch of times with other people, but every time I would tuck her in at night and would get reminded why I had been doing this.

You Still Need to Take Care of Your Child

One of the most important parts of you being able to go back to school is to find a way to take care of your child while you are away. At first, I used to leave my daughter with my parents so they can take care of her while I'm away from my classes. I also had some help from my good friends as they also offered to help and take care of her. But there are other much better ways to take care of your kid while you are studying.

Try applying for financial aid or some funding assistance. This helps a lot as it allows you to pay for services to take care of your kid while you study. Some colleges even have a special program for parent students and have an on-site daycare program.

If this is not for you, I also contemplated taking online classes, as well. That way you can take care of your kid and study from home without any problems and added problems.

Extra Money Can Help

Raising a family and attending school is not cheap. You have to find time for everything and top of it all you have to work. So in order to make everything click, I needed to find ways to earn some additional money. After some research, it found out that the best solution for that would be to apply for some financial aid programs.

In my case, I set up a meeting with a financial aid office at my college. They were able to offer me a grant during my studies here. There are also loan programs that can help as well. Some employers even provide financial support to their employees who are single parents and who are looking to further their education.

It never hurts to ask around to make sure that you research all the offered opportunities for you.

Organize and Keep Your Goal in Mind

I am circling back now and emphasizing that the most important thing is not to give up. You already have your support and now it is up to you to be fixed on your goal and stay on the path as much as you can. But in order to do that you need to up your organization and time management skills.

One of the things that I have learned first hand is that I needed to find time for a bunch of things now. Work is one thing and taking care of your child is another. But you still have to manage to go to classes and finding time to study, write papers go to the library and all things related to education.

Don't panic! The day is long enough for you to finish all of this. But make sure that you also incorporate time to rest and refresh yourself. The main thing is that the least amount of time you will be spending on yourself but keep your goal in mind and realize the certain sacrifices will have to be made. After you get your diploma there will be plenty of time to get back to your hobbies.