MBA + young kids = Hell (or does it?)

When I tell people that I just completed a 1-year intensive MBA with two children under four they are always surprised that I survived.
Sometimes I’m surprised I survived as well. But the thing they don’t realise is that having young children actually gives you an advantage (and a very, very supportive partner helps too). Firstly, to even decide to commit to doing an MBA you have to be sure that it’s the right decision. But it’s when you’re actually doing your MBA that your children’s “support” comes to the fore.
When you are in the heaviest part of your MBA, and you’re struggling to find time for sleep, let alone your partner and children, having children reaps it rewards. Your focus on your studies becomes that bit more important: “if I’m missing time with my kids for this, then it better be worth it, and I better do my absolute best”. Suddenly, you find that extra ounce of motivation that helps you stay awake while reading the 25^th page of a case study at midnight.
It also helps you prioritise your time, and not in the way you think. For example, your lecturer may have given you 40 pages of reading for your next class, but also an additional 15 page ‘optional’ reading. While you’d think that having children would mean any optional reading was ignored, that wasn’t the case for me. I was damn sure that I was going to complete all the reading possible to maximise my learning opportunity, otherwise the sacrifice that my partner and children had made would have been wasted.
Don’t get me wrong, it was really hard, and there were times where my family had to take  priority and my studies took a hit, but overall I don’t think I would have achieved as well as I did without their support or their “support”.