On the topic of being older with kids - I think there is always a way to fit kids in - assuming you want them - I knew several women in my program who got pregnant and still continued without missing a semester, its hard but possible. In a 2 year post-doc, one would only miss about 6 weeks post partum and then get back. My youngest especially only knows my going to school, I've justified this all along as being a great gift for both kids, providing them examples of lifelong learning. Its been really, hard and tiring, but its a privilege to be able to get the degree.I get up to do homework at 5 am, and do homework with my kids at night, on my lunch hours at work, and sometimes go into my office to work on weekends so they don't have to tiptoe around the house, if it weren't for my really supportive husband it could not have happened...

Currently I am a research associate & co-PI on a number of proposals. From posts here I gather most people are from Europe, but in my field in the U.S. (for me at least) it is difficult to get funding as PI without the PhD. Once I have PhD a key purpose of post doc will be to get funding, & if I want federal funding (NIH), I have a better shot at mentored funding; that is how I understand things.I've worked clinically & in research for 15 years at the same institution, its outstanding and prestigious, I guess I just don't want to cut off other possibilities as it is not exactly anthro oriented, so staying may mean compromising or really struggling with the type of research focus I want to do, but leaving means uprooting & taking a big chance leaving a familiar place. We're leaning toward doing post-doc here and then seeing what happens.

Sorry so choppy - was trying to keep under the 200 word limit... I also wanted to say I was glad to find the forum, and really glad to find I'm not the only doc student who is age 20 - sometimes it feels otherwise!

Hello - I am 40 with 2 kids, working FT/half-time student,should be completing dissertation next spring in med anthro. My quandry (not a gripe I'm quite blessed w/my situation) is I've realized post-doc is inevitable for research in order to get funding which will most likely be mentored. I have an amazing boss & am pretty sure a post-doc when I'm done, but I'm nervous about relying soley on this promise & started to look at opportunities which may even be better suited to my degree & actually found one that was interested. However that means possibly uprooting the family. Stay here for a post-doc & get mentored funding, what happens to that funding if I want to move after the post-doc? Two issue here -I don't want to rely completely on one person because things happen with funding all the time, but I don't know how aggressively to pursue other sources of post-docs at this point AND after working this hard on PhD I don't want to not pursue opportunities which may be better suited, but worry about uprooting my family; if I wait until after post-doc, how will mentored funds play out in a move. Thanks in advance!