Preparing Your Family for the Law School Experience

Preparing your Family for the Law School Experience

Prior to the start of law school, make certain to have a conversation with your loved ones about the journey you are about to undertake. Try to cover the points listed below:

Spouse or Significant Other

• Discuss how law school will fit into your priorities.
• Explain that law school is a rigorous intellectual program of study and a professional school, where each day you will be expected to think and act in a professional manner.
• Share your calendar; make certain it includes a regular time protected for the two of you to enjoy.
• Discuss how tasks such as cleaning, cooking, laundry, and bill paying will get accomplished.
• Give your spouse or significant other a sense of the rhythm of the semester; help them understand what to expect each month.
• Protect blocks of time at the end of the semester for exam study.

Children

• Decide how children and law schools fit in your set of priorities.
• Show children around the law school campus.
• To the extent they are able to understand what you are taking on, explain to them what law school is and what it will require of you and them.
• Regularly protect time to spend with the children and away from your books.
• If their age and maturity permit, use household tasks, such as cooking, cleaning, and laundry as opportunities to work and talk together.
• Develop playgroups and/or a network of other parents with children to help you cover times when you need to study.
• Complete any regular medical/dental exams before the start of the school year.
• During the first few days of class, obtain the contact information for at least one student in each of your classes in the event you have to miss a class to take care of a sick child or other emergency.

Parents

• Make certain your parents understand how they and law school fit in your system of priorities.
• Discuss the obligations that law school will place on your schedule; help them to see that not only is law school a rigorous intellectual challenge, it is also a professional school, where you will be expected to think and act in a professional manner.
• Prior to the start of the school year, discuss any financial expectations you have of your parents or that they may have of you.
• Let your parents know how they can help you; give them specific jobs, such as cooking for you once a week if they are local or planning a weekend when they can visit you and spoil you if they are not.
• Prior to the start of exams, let your parents know that you will need protected blocks of time to study and that you may not be available to respond to their every call or e-mail.