I didn't just do the course for fun, the course was for work. The course was to help me with my professional development. The course seemed like a good idea at the time.
When I was on the course, I told the tutor that I was just a few short weeks from being a dad. The tutor and my coursemates all congratulated me in advance, and we continued the learning. The weather that week was beautiful; the sun shone in a manner suggesting it had forgotten what month is was (March! Sun! In March! April, take note.)
The trouble with courses, is they come with coursework. Not a problem in the before-times. But, now, on top of the powerful distraction provided by Twitter, Facebook, blogs, forums, eating, making cups of tea, thinking about eating, the weather and what's on TV, there's the baby.
Babies don't know about coursework. Because they're babies. Babies don't care about PESTLE analyses. Or SWOT analyses. Or word counts. Or Harvard referencing conventions. They don't care at all. They care about crying. Screaming and screaming and screaming while you are trying to do coursework.
Fine.
I didn't want to do coursework anyway. So the baby gets a cuddle. He stops crying. I put him down, return to the PESTLE. He cries. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Fine.
I didn't want to do the coursework anyway. So I shut the laptop. Close the text book. The baby gets a cuddle. I get a cup of tea. I'm far happier than when I was doing the coursework.
But the coursework must be done. It is not optional. It is the first of four, spread over the next four months. So, readers, I turn to you: what are your strategies? How do I complete the coursework while the baby is in the house?
Tomorrow, Mrs L will be taking the baby to her parents house for a while, so that I can concentrate on the coursework. I will miss him. I'd rather be bouncing my baby than SWOTing. I'd probably rather be changing a nappy than writing a competitor analysis.
But just because a baby is incompatible with coursework, doesn't mean I don't have to do it.
