By: Casey Hamilton
P. J. Emmick is a stay-at-home mom who is going back to school to pursue a career, which many moms often do. However, when you realize that P.J. is the mom of eight children, it makes what she is doing seem much more complicated and difficult. But don’t worry- P.J.’s got it all under control.
When P.J. first graduated from Hancock County High School in 1997, she began college pursuing the possibility of becoming a forensic pathologist. But soon opportunities for fun were more significant to her than doing well in school. So after one year, P.J. quit school and found a job where she reconnected with and married Dan Emmick and continued her life by raising 8 children with him: Kristin (18), a social work major attending Brescia University on a scholarship; Dylan (14), a student at Hancock County High; Grayce (13) and Prestyn (12), students at Hancock County Middle; and Landyn (9), Waylan (8), Hayden (7), and Wyatt (6), all students at North Hancock Elementary. When her youngest child began preschool, she decided to return to school full-time, where she had to diligently pursue A’s in 9 straight classes in order to allow her GPA to recover from her previous college experience.
P.J. began her re-education at Owensboro Community and Technical College, where she earned the distinction of being the Education program Honor Student. Her hard work and dedication along with her tireless effort and work ethic paid off, earning her a spot in the Teacher Education Program at the Western Kentucky University campus in Owensboro. But despite all of the time that school takes in her already busy schedule, her children are her first priority, and she makes every effort to ensure they realize that.
P. J. credits her children with making her a more patient person, especially her son Waylan, who has autism and requires frequent trips to Owensboro and Louisville every week for therapy. Coping with this and learning effective parenting methods through the years has also taught her more of the empathy and understanding that are necessary to be a quality teacher. P. J., who used to be known as “The Community Babysitter,” has always loved helping children, and says her own brood knows that education is important. But she is not going back to school to prove that to them. “I am going back because I see how well my kids are doing since I have been able to stay home and spend quality time with them, but there are kids who don’t have that situation at home. So I would like to make a difference for those kids.”
Besides travelling back and forth multiple times a week for Waylan’ s therapy, P.J. also sets her school schedule so that she can take and pick up her children from school and chauffeur them to various activities such as basketball, baseball, and dance. Until the more strenuous classes of the Teacher Education program hit, she was able to actively volunteer at North Hancock Elementary, something she truly misses doing. She lives by the calendar she keeps at home, and says, “If it isn’t on the calendar, it’s not going to happen, because I won’t remember it.”
P.J. completes her homework at night after the children are all in bed and she has the quiet time to herself. But this results in getting little sleep. Although P.J. and Dan’s parents do help out with the children, they don’t like to ask too often. “We are the ones who decided to have eight children, so they are our responsibility,” she explains. And now that the children are older, they are happy to help out with the younger ones at home.
Through the years of being a mom she has learned to take each day as it comes, and she realized a long time ago that it doesn’t pay to get upset, stressed or angry over the obstacles that life throws at you. “Life happens,” she casually observes, “but how you deal with it is up to you.” Now that’s good advice we can all use.