On Thursday 29th January, we marked Parent Mental Health Day (Friday 30th January) with a Parent Wellbeing Workshop. This was a Parent, Pregnant & Carers Student Network event, delivered in collaboration with Maternity Shift.
Being a student is hard and juggling study alongside parenting or caring responsibilities can feel overwhelming at times. With this session we created a supportive space to talk honestly about those pressures while offering practical tools to help parents return to education, manage academic demands, and practise self-compassion.
A key highlight was the chance to share and vent. Student parents explored challenges such as burnout, parent guilt (which never goes away no matter how old your kids get) and the emotional strain of balancing deadlines with family life. The workshop explored the importance of finding your village, whether that’s course mates and/or student parents, your personal tutor, friends, family. Having a support network can make all the difference.
If you’re a parent, pregnant student, or carer, we encourage you to join the Parent, Pregnant & Carers Student Network to connect with others, access support, and be part of a community that understands. We want to keep having these open conversations, normalising the share experienced of student parents and student carers and advocate for policies that support student with caring responsibilities.
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