It was 8 a.m. and we were walking the streets in Barcelona with the kids and this was back in September 2019, just 3 weeks after we started our Grand Adventure. It was a very quiet morning, the streets were nearly deserted and you’d be hard pressed to find a shop open for breakfast. Quite the contrary to life in Singapore that is bustling with life and activity at 8 a.m. with folks heading out to work, making the school drop off before work, helpers or stay at home parents or the elderly making their trip to the market to buy groceries.
In Barcelona, there was none of that that we saw. The Spanish culture was alive and well here, where folks sleep in after late nights out and head in to work later. The quiet of the morning was a lovely way to start the day and have some reflective thoughts. The desire to work in Spain once again gnawed at my heart. I asked Mr.C “Why can’t we just stay here for a year and work some random job that pays the bills then move on when we have had our fill?”
Mr.C and I broadly explored this whim (or perhaps a calling?) as we strolled the streets and our young ones thoroughly focused on filling their little mouths with food (always works!). Discussions like this generally falls apart when we consider the impact on the children. How would they feel constantly (every year or so?) on the move with no roots set up and having to re-adjust every single time. Would they grow up to then say “Oh we had a rough childhood, always moving around and with no steady friends. Oh our parents were always frugal, choosing random work instead of working their way up their career path. Oh our folks were a little nuts and didn’t quite care about the impact on us!”
Then it hit me. It’s been a comforting mantra ever since. Kids are always going to moan and groan and quibble and grouch and protest and complain and oh heavens forbid, even blame! Which kid just oozes with gratitude every single moment? Kids ALWAYS want more and more of what they don’t have! More time at the playground. More time before bedtime. More ice-cream. More stickers. That’s just the very nature of kids, is it not? Maybe some adults as well actually, haha!
Let’s assume we could teleport right back to Singapore this instant and get back into our normal lives where we’re both working and the kids go to childcare. Times would change in the future and when they are grown up, they are also likely to be surrounded by kids who had an unconventional life of moving around and be in a situation where they say “Oh my folks never followed their dreams and stayed on a safe path. They never traveled and worked elsewhere. They were so boring and conventional. Of course, travelling has such benefits and we would have loved it but nah, we only had Singapore”.
Be it Mexico or Singapore, kids will always want more. You can give them everything under the sun and they will ask for more! The flip side of that is that kids will always find ways to thrive and have fun, with whatever they have, despite the protests for more. We just about never buy any toys for the kids and that has not stopped them from making jet packs and shields out of cereal boxes (by the way, I’ve started reading labels more carefully and turns out that Kellogg’s cornflakes has 6% sugar versus 24% sugar that I see in other cereal boxes! Choose wisely!)
So to every parent out there who struggles at taking some risks and living a life that you desire because you have kids, know that the kids are so much more resilient than we give them credit for. In fact we sometimes hold both the kids and ourselves back from experiences and situations that we can absolutely handle, if we had to. The kind of risks we take are very, very calculated and it pushes all of us out of our comfort zones.
Taking risks with kids can be exhausting but it’s all part of the game. The kids will constantly want more and more of what they don’t have. Also part of the game, be it in Mexico or Singapore! So, if I could put it quite succinctly and with tongue in cheek :
“If the kids are going to complain anyway, then why can’t we just go out and live our lives the way we want it?”
Ms.K of SippingCoconuts
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