I feel you. I am 43 and have two kids and already have a masters but not in CS. I want to go back because even though I am working in industry for quite some time, their a foundational gaps I have since I learned things on the fly. Very little time between work and life to do so, and at the end of the day, really have a hard time justifying cost when I’ve got so much experience already…
Would you mind sharing an example or two of what sort of foundational gaps you feel you have?
I didn’t go to school for CS either and I felt like that for a while too, but at some point I stopped feeling like that. I think the feeling for me was some kind of imposter syndrome that I was attributing to the degree, but I think it turned out to actually be coming from somewhere else.
I very much feel like this also. Even after years of experience I just feel like I'm missing things, at a deeper level. I spend a lot of time learning on my own but it doesn't stick as well as I'd like it to.
Maybe attending online college courses like Coursera could be a compromise?