We had both of our children during our studies. We both had a fixed contract as working students, but no permanent jobs in that sense (as a working student, the contract ends with the end of the studies). We had little money (which was quite a lot for students through part-time jobs), but quite a lot of time, and after the wedding came the idea of having children, and I got pregnant quickly both times, so that’s how it went – child 1 during the bachelor’s and child 2 during the master’s. I am now 30, finished my master’s 4 months ago at 29, my husband, of course, finished his studies sooner and has been working for 2.5 years and will soon be 32. I am currently still looking for a good part-time job; I only work on the side and our children are already 3.5 and almost 6. I would say it was rather unorthodox, but in the end, it was the right way. Also, buying a small end-of-terrace house quite quickly after the studies because we simply got extremely lucky and managed to get an affordable house (we had always saved and that just barely covered the equity; nothing was gifted except for 5,000€ from my grandma, which she gave me a little earlier than planned).
Nothing comes from nothing. For us, it only worked because we both worked part-time alongside our studies the whole time (weekends, nights, holidays), and we had those jobs because we both had already completed medical training before our studies and had worked for a while. Without this prerequisite, we certainly wouldn’t have a house today.
And yes, children make an incredible mess. But I find pets worse; especially the cats are a real nuisance. But well, they are almost 11 and 12 and were there before the children, and the dog is now 9 and was also there before the children :
