You need to tell your family to go **** themselves and you need to start focusing on your own life and figure out what YOU think makes you a good or a bad person.

People aren't allowed to make you feel like shit just because they're "family."

Having different beliefs/actions/responsibilities/desires from your parents doesn't make you a bad person.

Give me all your money.

Forward this thread to your parents, seriously. why not?
Tell them that university is way harder than highschool for everyone.
buy them a book on how to be a parent lol.

Originally Posted by AmyLia

I agree with the other people on here: you're not a bad person because you're busy and frustrated.

I had a really bad first year too. It gets better.

The most important thing I've found helped me out was learning time management. So I bought an agenda, and I started using it (and more importantly, I actually followed what I said I would do when I said I would do it). In this manner I've been able to make time for family as my family is also very demanding. Weekends in my household are considered family time and pretty much nothing else. Though they're strong believers in education, my parents have always put a focus on time management and at the end of the day, balance between school and home life.

I've lived at home all three years so far and though I meant to move out in Sep, I've changed my mind because living at home cuts expenses significantly.
Also, I'm not sure who said that food should cost like $5 a day if you're SOCS...that's bullshit. In my case I eat breakfast at home in the morning and then since I'm here 8am-8pm on most days, I have to have lunch and dinner, which are serious meals. If you try to live on bagels, cereal bars and Willy dogs you're gona have some serious health problems.
If I pack a sandwich for lunch or whatnot, I still have to have dinner and when I'm studying hard, snacks. At the end of the month, most of my money does end up going towards food. It's not weird at all. I've talked to other SOCS students and they agree. You can have all the best intentions to save your money and eat a little less, but you still need to eat or go home and eat, which isn't always an option.

Just explain everything to them. I know it can be hard for parents to understand especially because I get the sense that they didn't grow up here, but eventually they'll just have to accept it.

Anyhoo, I've said enough. Good luck!

Assuming OP is not in third year engineering, I highly doubt she spends 12x5 = 60 hours a week at school.

Normal non engineering days would be like 9:30 to 3:30, or 11:30 to 5:30, or something like that.
We're assuming breakfast is eaten at home, and same with dinner most days. A willy dog, 3 granola bars, a bagel, and two bottles of water isn't enough for 4-5 hours at school?

And don't be ridiculous - major health problems? I can go 8 hours without a major meal any day of the week, and I often do that at school because I'm lazy and don't want to waste money on food. Doesn't affect my thinking at all, and it doesn't affect my health too too much.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Assuming OP is not in third year engineering, I highly doubt she spends 12x5 = 60 hours a week at school....

You make it sound like engineering is hard....

*suppressed tears of rage*

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Assuming OP is not in third year engineering, I highly doubt she spends 12x5 = 60 hours a week at school.

Normal non engineering days would be like 9:30 to 3:30, or 11:30 to 5:30, or something like that.
We're assuming breakfast is eaten at home, and same with dinner most days. A willy dog, 3 granola bars, a bagel, and two bottles of water isn't enough for 4-5 hours at school?

And don't be ridiculous - major health problems? I can go 8 hours without a major meal any day of the week, and I often do that at school because I'm lazy and don't want to waste money on food. Doesn't affect my thinking at all, and it doesn't affect my health too too much.

I'm glad you showed your work there, I was a little confused about how to calculate how much time I spend at school...
Even if she's not in engineering, there are plenty of other programs that require longer hours.

Chances are though, that if she's spending that much money on food, it's probably necessary. I think it's silly to apply YOUR crazy eating habits to another person.
I can guarantee you I'm a tinier person than you (I'm tiny compared to everyone) but I eat more than most people because I've got a crazy metabolism. I wouldn't survive on that for even one meal and there are plenty of people who would agree. Not to mention granola bars and bagels, both of which contain significant amounts of sugar, are not food imo.

ask your supervisor how to be

Originally Posted by RyanC

You make it sound like engineering is hard....

*suppressed tears of rage*

I see what you did there.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Assuming OP is not in third year engineering, I highly doubt she spends 12x5 = 60 hours a week at school.

Normal non engineering days would be like 9:30 to 3:30, or 11:30 to 5:30, or something like that.

Not necessarily. Every faculty, program and person is different. I had days where I started at 8:30am and ended at 6:30pm when I was in first year (Humanities). That includes volunteering, working and school - but excludes 3 hours bus time for the day. Engineers aren't the only ones with heavy schedules.

How do you make yourself a better person ?

The question you should be asking is : What would be a better person ?

To attain a goal, you must first depict it .

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

Assuming OP is not in third year engineering, I highly doubt she spends 12x5 = 60 hours a week at school.

Normal non engineering days would be like 9:30 to 3:30, or 11:30 to 5:30, or something like that.
We're assuming breakfast is eaten at home, and same with dinner most days. A willy dog, 3 granola bars, a bagel, and two bottles of water isn't enough for 4-5 hours at school?

And don't be ridiculous - major health problems? I can go 8 hours without a major meal any day of the week, and I often do that at school because I'm lazy and don't want to waste money on food. Doesn't affect my thinking at all, and it doesn't affect my health too too much.

In first year Humanities, I had classes going from 830 am-930 pm, and that's excluding busing to and from campus, plus the required work for the next day. It's hard to generalize for different faculties.

Originally Posted by J. Dorey

In first year Humanities, I had classes going from 830 am-930 pm, and that's excluding busing to and from campus, plus the required work for the next day. It's hard to generalize for different faculties.

I'm skeptical that you had 5 8:30am classes a week as well as finishing 9:30pm 5 days a week without more than a few hour gap in which to go home in between them.

The reason I mentioned engineering is because I have friends (though not at McMaster) who have 48 hours of class a week, and they're all in engineering.

Having a couple hours of class then a massive break until an evening class doesn't really count for my initial point, which was to eat a lot of small things throughout the day assuming you don't have time for a proper meal (which is most likely to be the case when you're in a program with a lot of class hours).

Originally Posted by Kathy2

Not necessarily. Every faculty, program and person is different. I had days where I started at 8:30am and ended at 6:30pm when I was in first year (Humanities). That includes volunteering, working and school - but excludes 3 hours bus time for the day. Engineers aren't the only ones with heavy schedules.

You're adding in volunteering and working, which although I didn't account for originally, would obviously add a few more hours to anyone's schedule.

I guess I didn't make it obvious that my point wasn't to neglect food 5 days a week, especially on days when you have the most class. However, on days when you only have a few hours of class (and I'm skeptical that all of you in first year humanities had 6-8 hours of class daily and absolutely had to be on campus for 12 hours every single day) you really don't need a $10 meal at Bistro to keep you full for a few hours when there are cheaper alternatives present.

However I apologize for generalizing - it seems like first year humanities students routinely have 40+ hours a week of class from the sounds of it.

Originally Posted by Alchemist11

I'm skeptical that you had 5 8:30am classes a week as well as finishing 9:30pm 5 days a week without more than a few hour gap in which to go home in between them.

The reason I mentioned engineering is because I have friends (though not at McMaster) who have 48 hours of class a week, and they're all in engineering.

Having a couple hours of class then a massive break until an evening class doesn't really count for my initial point, which was to eat a lot of small things throughout the day assuming you don't have time for a proper meal (which is most likely to be the case when you're in a program with a lot of class hours).



You're adding in volunteering and working, which although I didn't account for originally, would obviously add a few more hours to anyone's schedule.

I guess I didn't make it obvious that my point wasn't to neglect food 5 days a week, especially on days when you have the most class. However, on days when you only have a few hours of class (and I'm skeptical that all of you in first year humanities had 6-8 hours of class daily and absolutely had to be on campus for 12 hours every single day) you really don't need a $10 meal at Bistro to keep you full for a few hours when there are cheaper alternatives present.

However I apologize for generalizing - it seems like first year humanities students routinely have 40+ hours a week of class from the sounds of it.

yea kathy2 who the fck are you kidding, you might work really hard but there is no reason to get all butt hurt and make humanities sound like its harder than engineering...jeez.

It does seem like Humanities students have classes at the worst hours (for example, a significant proportion of friends in the Humanities have 8:30 or 9:30 AM classes on the same day as 10 PM classes). However, they rarely have much class in-between - usually, Humanities class-hours are ~4-5 hours less than mathematics class-hours, which are themselves quite low in comparison with lab-based sciences and engineering.

Originally Posted by RyanC

You make it sound like engineering is hard....

*suppressed tears of rage*

what a joke...