Balancing College Life With Kids

story by Luca Crouch-Goodhue photo contributions by Addie Adkins, Lorena Ellison, and Angela Kyle design by Makayla Zayic

“I just think there’s a culture shift, there’s more student parents, there’s more people now going back to school, and they have a family,” says Angela Kyle, a mother of four who is finishing her master’s degree in education/high education. Kyle is also a former PULSE writer and CWU’s Orientation Coordinator.

Currently, almost one in five students is a parent. Balancing raising a family and school and possibly a job as well is a lot to face and Central has few resources available.

If you are a student parent, or know one, you know the struggles they face. Some have to take out extra student loans or financial aid to help support their families, or they have to skip a class because their kid is sick, or hope their professor is understanding when they have to turn in a paper late.

The Reality of Life as a Student Parent:

Having kids is life changing for many people. Having kids while also balancing school, work and raising them is an even bigger change. Some students end up needing to take out extra student loans and financial aid to pay for their kid’s needs.

Kyle got pregnant in her senior year of college and left school to focus on her family. She chose to leave since she “didn’t quite know how to balance school and family and a new baby.” She didn’t go back to school until her first child graduated high school which is when she decided she wanted to finish her degree. Addie Adkins is a graduate assistant and is like Kyle in that after her first child she left school until that child was nine. She utilized “financial aid and student loans and student employment” to help pay for college and her kids.

Lorena Ellison, a third-year student, had her child after her freshman year of college and then took a gap year. She works part time along with going to college and raising her child. She went back to school after the gap year, and she utilizes campus resources.

Kyle was able to avoid childcare fees because her husband worked from home so it was easier to find times to do pickups or drop-offs for school. The challenging part was finding activities for the kids during COVID when everything that the kids enjoyed doing shut down.“It took a lot of me getting online and I would Google things like ‘what to do in Ellensburg if you’re a kid’ or ‘kid friendly activities’,” says Kyle.

She also took her daughter to the “Monday Movie Madness” since it is affordable as she’s a student so she got in for free while her daughter only cost $5. She did feel awkward as her daughter was the only child there.

Adkins has the support of her family to help with her kids. Her youngest is in preschool which has been the hardest part of her being in school since it’s only “two or three days a week, for two or three hours.” Her older child is in school full time so it was easier to go to school.

Adkins said that last year, when she was having to travel to Ellensburg twice a week it was challenging with her youngest being in preschool only a few hours a week, but with her family support she was able to make it happen. Her youngest’s grandpa decided that he would take the youngest to preschool and “do grandpa days those days” since he’s retired.

ADDIE ADKINS

Support for Student Parents:

Being a student parent looks different for everyone; some have the support of family and partners; some have no support except for what the university or community provides.

Ellison doesn’t have the support of her family or partner. Her biggest support has been the few resources on and off campus. She has her child enrolled at CWU’s Early Childhood Learning Center (ECLC).

She also joined the Resonate Church when she first transferred to CWU and found support there while she was waiting to start her classes. Her friends there were supporting her emotionally and letting her know that everything would be alright.

She had traveled over 2,000 miles with her daughter in her move to Ellensburg, which she said was “scary, nervewracking” since she had to start her life over again.

Neither Kyle nor Adkins have used the ECLC, though Adkins did get put on the waiting list when she thought she was going to move to Ellensburg. Kyle had the support of her husband, and Adkins had the support of her family.

Ellison does utilize the ECLC for her child and while she thinks it’s expensive, she says “it’s really good, it’s really nice.” Michelle Hill, director of the ECLC, has said that there will be “no registration fee anymore” she has just forgotten to take it off the website. The ECLC is a “really nice” facility according to Ellison. It has two locations, one for infants and toddlers and one for 2 to 12-year-olds. They do have a waitlist, but it is catered to students first before staff and faculty members.

The ECLC is one of two resources on campus available to student parents. The other resource CWU provides is the Family Resource Center which is run by Amy Claridge.

They have a clothing bank that has maternity clothes and lots of options for kids, from babies to older kids. Claridge says that they have “a diaper bank and a bank of random supplies for families, things that families might need” that can have things like highchairs and bottles and random things like that.

Claridge explained that they “also always accept requests for resources from community members or students or anyone…I won’t have that exact thing, but we’ll find a way to get that thing.”

The Family Resource Center caters to the Ellensburg community as a whole, but that’s because there are fewer student parents compared to the total number of parents in the general community.

The Family Resource Center tries to advertise at the on-site daycares to encourage parents to take advantage of the center. The Family Resource Center also has a parenting group to provide some support and community for parents. The group is made up of both students and staff/faculty; Claridge said that they will be starting it again in January.

LORENA ELLISON

Student Parent Feedback:

Kyle gave some ideas for what colleges can do to make student parents and their kids feel more comfortable on campus. “How cool would it be if there was a kid’s meal at the dining; just two chicken strips, an apple juice and a wildcat sticker” Kyle said. Having some kid’s meals at the SURC, especially during family orientated activities, like when Kyle brought her daughter to the movie night, would bring incentive to people to bring their kids.

Kyle also thought that starting a real student parent club would be beneficial. One of the hardest parts of being a parent in general is the isolation that being a parent brings. Being a student parent with the balance of school/work and raising a family brings more isolation as you aren’t always able to go out with friends you make in class or join a club to get to know others. Adkins says if she were going to advise anybody on how to navigate being a student parent is that, “kids happen no matter what, but if I had a choice/had to do it all over again, I would probably have done college when I didn’t have kids, just so that I could get the full college experience.”

Ellison also has a message for young parents: “regardless if you’re in high school or college, I feel like a lot of parents… when they find out they’re pregnant, they think and assume they have to stop their life without pursuing their dreams because they have a kid.” But many would argue that having kids doesn’t stop someone from chasing their dreams.

Ellison and Kyle both think having kids makes you want you to work harder, be better and make a better life for yourself and your child.

“Regardless if you’re in high school or college, I feel like a lot of parents… when they find out they’re pregnant, they think and assume they have to stop their life without pursuing their dreams because they have a kid.”

- Lorena Ellison

ANGELA KYLE

READ