I’m so proud of myself … I earned a place on the Dean’s list! While I don’t like to admit it, this is my first time on the Dean’s list and to be so highly ranked since High School. I have finally remembered how to work and study.

Anyway, my academic accomplishment has generated another round of comments from fellow students, calling me crazy for trying to be a law student as a single mama. The most frequent comment though is “I don’t know how you do it, I can barely take care of myself.” Sometimes comparisons are added as to the differences between caring for a child and caring for a dog. My response has faithfully been that I just do it, and that I don’t know of any other way of living.

I’m not unique: my student mentor was a single mama of two girls and there are many married students with children - infants on up to teens.

I thought I’d record a few of my thoughts on the special circumstances of having kids while in law school, more for fun and for posterity than anything else. If I remember, I’ll even make it a regular series of posts.

I think the biggest challenge is balancing the social networking with parenting. Since I don’t have a spouse with whom I can leave my daughter, I have yet to attend a happy hour. They are always set for the exact time I’m picking her up from school and making dinner.

It seems that most social events that lawyers host involve drinking in bars. Maybe when I’m running my firm, I’ll come up with some other activities. BBQ at the park with one of those jumpy things, anyone?

I’ve developed a sticker reward system to help get Ryan out of bed and out the door in the morning. Every 5 stickers earns her a trip to the zoo. Thank goodness that zoo passes are so cheap. We can go after class, spend a couple hours watching the monkeys or petting the goats, and she is sleeping hard before we get home.

Classmates ask how I have time for the zoo, but whenever Ryan is with me and awake, I can’t study so why not go to the zoo and wear her out? So far, it’s resulted in 2 extra hours of study time while she sleeps on the couch before bed.

Other major challenge I faced last semester was studying for finals. She isn’t old enough to entertain herself quietly so she went to visit grandma and grandpa every weekend for 6 weeks. By the last weekend, she cried as she left that she missed me.

My best choice in choosing law school was staying close to family. I’m only 80 miles away. I passed up a larger scholarship, but I think the benefit far outweighed the cost.

Well, back to learning to write a brief...