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In this episode, I interview Rachel, one of my school mums who is working, studying and raising 3 kids. Features scheduling failures and a dog!

The Lowdown– Family of 5– 2 Working Parents– 1 part-time/casual work (relief teaching) and studying– 1 part-time work– 11 year old- 8 year old (special needs)- 7 year old4:38 Sleep5:08 Who are the people in your family? Who does what when?7:06 Parenting super powers7:29 Doing lots of things at a time9:01 2 different schools9:25 Calming influence10:02 Picking up each others slack10:51 Relief teaching with school pick up and drop offs11:05 OSHC (Out of school hours care)11:47 Have you been able to choose your own path?12:40 Feeling restricted in how much you can do13:18 Both partners feeling restricted?13:51 The extra load of a special needs family14:28 2 part time workers15:06 Pressure of being solely responsible16:20 Men and retrenchment16:58 American example of larger numbers of men losing manufacturing jobs and taking on child care19:30 What works well?19:54 Children taking on more responsibility21:30 Downsides?22:00 Individual time with each child22:10 What else have you tried22:58 Casual employment and childcare23:47 Has it got easier (please say yes!)24:24 As it gets easier you take more on - like study24:48 What is the next step?25:08 Fitting university placements around work25:30 Won't somebody think of the....dog?26:03 Impact of university placements on husbands work load26:54 Supportive work environments?27:04 Relief teaching = many different work environments, no single person to negotiate with28:58 Funny or disastrous moments?28:40 University Placement + Relief teaching fail30:12 Is this what you thought family would look like? - NO!31:24 Not having a job when you start a family33:12 Flip side - having a job that you have to go back to35:02 Any advice?Let me know what you thought of this episode!

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