If you’re a career-focused parent, you understand the struggle to find balance. On the one hand, you genuinely care about your career and want to focus on achievement. On the other hand, you also have important responsibilities at home that you are not willing to compromise.
Traditionally, the only other option has been to sacrifice your own health and well-being. Today, it’s easier than ever to focus on high-level career training while also respecting your personal boundaries.
In this article, we take a look at how to move into leadership roles even while prioritizing your role as a parent.
How Remote Learning Open Creates Opportunities
The remote learning boom has existed for decades, but never in quite the same capacity as it does now. In the early 2000s, remote education was a bit of a punchline. That changed gradually as technology improved, but was erased entirely as a notion during the pandemic.
At that time, everyone became an online learner or a remote employee. Today, it’s possible to get a nursing or even law degree online. This creates significant opportunities for people who want genuine career advancement, but aren’t at a place in life where they can drive to a university five days a week.
How Remote Learning Makes a Difference
How impactful is the advent of online learning really? After all, you still have to do the work even if it is being completed in a slightly more convenient format. It is true that getting a graduate degree is never easy, regardless of whether or not you’re doing it from the comfort of home.
However, there are a few reasons why the remote format is particularly important. Parents understand that even relatively modest ways of saving time can add up considerably when they are scaled into the context of a weekly routine. The average commute in the United States is thirty minutes. People driving to school in those conditions are spending five hours a week or more just in their cars.
That’s not taking into consideration the lecture or the ensuing homework. Just cutting out the commute is extremely liberating. As an added bonus, you’re also no longer geolocked. You can choose from the best programs in the country. If you’re qualified and have the means, you could invest in some of the best MBA programs on the planet, all from the comfort of your home.
More Flexible Formats
Some online learning programs even feature the option to forgo live lectures in favor of flexible pre-recorded learning modules. In this context, you’re able to work on assignments at your convenience so long as you meet broad deadlines.
Not everyone learns well in a loosely structured environment of this kind, but it is ideal for people who don’t always know what their weekly schedule is.
This way, you don’t have to tell your kids that you can’t make their soccer game or dress rehearsal because you have class. You’re able to prioritize the things that matter the most to you.
Another Thing to Keep in Mind
Here’s another thing that’s worth keeping in mind. These programs are often tailored, if not specifically towards parents, then at least for people who require a little bit of flexibility in their routine.
Education is, though we don’t always think of it as such, a product. Schools consider their target audience and package their materials accordingly.
People who are looking for career advancement skills, or wondering what can you do with an MHA degree, probably share a certain collection of characteristics.
There are still challenges associated with virtual learning products. The work is not easier just because you’re doing it online. Nor is managing professional, educational, and family life a simple task. Probably you will need to make sacrifices, and late nights are sure to be in your future.
Nevertheless, and all these things taken into account, it is often the most accessible and enjoyable way to get your degree.
Is Online Professional Development Right for You?
That, of course, is a personal question for which there is not a universally definitive answer. It is worth pointing out that there are a few challenging components to remote learning that bear at least a level of consideration.
And yes, peer-to-peer interactions are absolutely a relevant factor to keep in mind. Most online colleges will express an attitude of encouraging networking, but the extent to which this plays out is often limited.
Some online universities do it very well, but it is true that most of the time in-person networking is the best option available.
Keep in mind also, though, that your job is not necessarily to find a flawless program, but just one that you can complete.
You want something you’ll be able to finish with respect to your needs as a parent, a professional, and a student. Rare is the program that can perfectly fit all of those requirements, but you may find that online learning meets most of them.
