The name is absent

Parents talked about college as a flexible opportunity to spend time away from their
children as a preparation for the separation that would be necessitated by their return
to work. For Celia, attending college was an opportunity for her,

“not to worry about the kids, you know, sort of thing, so it helps you relax,
getting you back into it slowly .. so when the time came and I went to work I
was already used to leaving my children, you know. I was pretty much there and
quite confident that they were happy enough, before I went back to work,
anyway. ”

Plus, the course was more flexible than work.

7.3 Improving family relationships

These kinds of effect cover relationships with children, but also with partners, parents
or more widely. They enable people to sustain the fabric of family life, and on
occasion also to transform it. Faith reports that her history studies have changed her
children’s perception of her:

“ I think they’re quite impressed sometimes that I know what I know. It takes a
lot to impress my children. ”

Education led to Kali feeling happier, and this has improved her relationship with her
husband. In fact, he has had to start taking a share of the domestic responsibilities:

“More of the weight’s come back onto him because I’ve got a job now, so, you
know, he’s had to kind of get up and pull his socks up a bit more, and push his
weight around the house a bit as well. .. With me moving up in my work [as a
result of recent learning], he’s kind of got more proud of me and he’s accepted
it, and, you know, he really does help now, you know. He’ll pick the children up,
whereas before I used to pick them up from the school. ”

Nadine’s parents are elderly, and she had found it hard to maintain substantive
communication with them because of their inactivity. Now her mother is becoming
interested in the family history that Nadine is doing, and helping by looking out some
old records.

“ It’s helping us both in a way of communication. We can sit and talk about
things ... It’s given us something else to talk about. ”

As already noted, a major health benefit to parents of young children is that education
takes them out of the home and their daily routines. This in turn can improve wider
family relationships. Thus Madeline’s husband, sister-in-law and uncle are also

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