Is there a balance between being a parent and being employed?

I’m 22. I’m in school to be a forensic investigator (its like CSI, but a lot less glamorous in real life). I have a son. He’s five.

Working on a full-time school schedule, plus homework, I feel as if I’m neglecting him, horribly. I can’t imagine that an 8 hour work day would be any different.

I stayed home with him this summer and was bored out of my mind because I wasn’t doing anything.

I cannot stay at home with him and yet, I cannot ignore him for eleven hours out of every day, seeing as he’s only awake for 14 hours or so as it is.

I realize that employed parents are screwed by today’s society and yet, I cannot live this. It was due to my own single parent’s neglect that my entire childhood was destroyed by lax caretaking (in combination with my perverse older brother) and daddy dearest was too busy working to notice. I cannot be that parent. I cannot be that person. Unfortunately, I can’t be unemployed, either.

Most jobs that offer “part time” positions are either boring or underpaid. I truly want to go into forensics and yet, I cannot do an 8 hour day while still being capable of looking at myself in the mirror every morning.

Is there an equal medium and if so, how is it achieved?