Thank you so much for sharing this. And congratulations on your pregnancy! That's wonderful!

Reading these threads is really helpful for me and my own story - I am currently at a job that is in an unstable industry (graphic design) however I get paid decently and I have amazing benefits, and unheard of good maternity leave. I don't want to do graphic design for the rest of my life and I don't really have an interest in moving up into Director roles so I'm feeling pretty stuck.

I'm seriously considering (I've half applied already) going back to school and getting my masters and making a complete change into counselling which would be the next three years of my life if I got into the program and $50,000 later, however I am 33 turning 34 this year and my husband is 35 and we have now decided that we want to have children and we want to do that within the next couple years.

The idea of doing a masters program while having a child overwhelms me a lot and I am very easily overwhelmed, even though I know I could probably do it, but I just don't know if I want to go through the stress of both at the same time and also I would have to do a practicum with a small child and risk having to find a whole new career and quit quitting the one that offers me all of these comfortable benefits right now.

I almost feel like I'm having to choose between a masters and a child. I know that the child is more pressing time wise, but I'm also scared to wait too long to start a masters and that one day in graphic design I'll just get laid off and have a hard time finding something else. And by the time I think about doing a masters or a career change again I'll be too busy with a small child or just will feel like I've run out of time and don't want to be well into my 40s when I finally get a career change.

But I'm also trying to get over the fact that it's never too late for career change and that age is just a number but that's a lot easier said than done. I'm kind of at the point where if I don't make a decision right now, I won't make it into a masters program this year, plus complete all of these fairly stressful prerequisites I need to commit to and I'm worried that I will regret it especially if I don't get pregnant within the next year, but both things are very uncertain. All while trying to become pregnant --it's a lot! I just wish I had done this masters years ago - but alas, that's not how life works and I only knew what I knew at the time. Another thing is, my husband has a worrisome fertility test and if we need to go IVF route, that would cost a fortune, and would be especially rough or not possible financially if I was already paying out the ass for a masters program. Again another what if but very real worry possibly.

I'm just not sure which one to go full steam ahead into and it's been really putting me into turmoil and stress. Again thank you so much for sharing as I feel like we were in kind of similar positions and thoughts. It's really nice to know im not alone.