I remember seeing the thread that Tele made about his brother-hence the similar thread title. My sincere congratulations to him. My sister, around the same time, also received her doctoral degree and graduated from USC. The result has not been good.
When she first came to me asking my thoughts on the matter, before she had my niece, her 1st child, I asked her what her thoughts were on marriage and having children. She told me she was guided by her priest to steer well away from NFP, and she knew her place in the home was to be with children, and she was happy with that. When I asked why she would then want to get her Doctorates (She received her masters for free because she was working for a university at the time as a professor, which she continues to do till today) she said it would enable her to work from home teaching her courses online in the future; something which today's universities make possible. I thought it wasn't a bad idea, but of course referred her to her priest and husband.
She went through with it, and in the meantime had her 1st child, who is almost a year old now. A legitimate medical condition prevents her from attempting to conceive for another year now.
Unfortunately, things have changed for the worse, and have strengthened my opinion against women and school. My sister now has a large amount of debt to her name; how much exactly, I am unsure of, but I'm guessing upwards of 60 grand. Now that her bills have come due, what she didn't expect was a lack of jobs teaching online, so she has been forced to continue to teach in person. (of course, women and teaching is another matter for another thread). Now, she must send her daughter to daycare with people she doesn't know, spend money there, and be forced to 'juggle' life in a way mothers are not meant to. My brother in law ends up watching my daughter a lot after his work every day.
The whole situation is terrible. If I could go back, I would tell her not to get her doctorate degree. I may not be entirely against women going to university- sort of like Matthew, there must be a genuinely good reason- but going out of your way to get yourself into debt has clearly spelled spiritual ruin for my sister.
There's also a sort of collateral damage; my wife stays at home with out kids; it would be nice for her to have an actual traditional Traditional Catholic woman, my sister, to befriend more; they are friends, but I could see my sister having a positive impact on my wife, who is still relatively new to the faith, instead of being a bad example. Deo Gratias, my wife is very strong in this matter and fully believes in what we are doing for our and our children's souls.