Big news: we are not moving anywhere this summer.
It seems like it was just yesterday when we moved here in New York, rented this
temporary apartment and kids started school. School is almost out – two more half days left – and we already got a notice we should either renew our rent lease in two months or move out. We’ve been in New York for almost ten months already – where did the time go? On the other hand I feel so at home here that seems impossible it’s only been ten months – did the life in Europe, then traveling across the US and living in Colorado really even exist?
We have moved almost every year the past 7 years we have lived in the US. Out of the past 7 years we have lived in hotels or furnished temporary apartments for total of over a year. It may not seen that much out of my life, but that’s over 15% of my kids’ entire lives. You know those 100 days projects kids do at school – my kids do world maps and “100 places I’ve been” on those days.
We have decided just stop and breathe and enjoy life right here where we are. While it is tempting to move again, find a nicer place (we have tried, no such luck finding anything), maybe even closer to the city, but kids like their school in our little town and have gotten some friends. And the pool season just started and I finally found my way to the free gym we have in our club house. I miss owning my own home, renovating, painting and ripping of the carpets and installing wood floors. Maybe there will be a day that we can buy a house again but as of now our kids won’t have a “childhood home”, they just have a childhood of adventures, new experiences and they are getting different kind of tools for life with the lifestyle we have.
I do feel we deprive our children things – like their grandparents. One set lives in Texas, other set lives in Finland, and we live right in the middle, New York, and equally far away from both. The thought being away from family and my parents not seeing my kids to grow is killing me. My father said a few years ago they’ll come and visit us when we “settle down” and our life is “normal”. I hope he’ll change his mind some day, because I do not seek “normal life” and settling down, I seek living in the moment and experiencing every bit of life I can.
While our life may seem too chaotic and crazy and even totally not stable, the traveling and moving around isn’t the only thing we do differently in our family. On the other words: I am not a soccer mom. Since we travel and move so often, I want our every day life to be as low key and calm as possible. Kids don’t do soccer, nor baseball or take any other classes after school. If we are not doing something
skimbaco, adventurous and exciting, we lead pretty boring life. You need to balance it, you know. We don’t do many play dates, don’t go to movies or hang out at the mall on Saturdays. We don’t have babysitters, we never do anything without the kids. Think of it – the way we move around and travel, if our every day life was the typical suburban busy family life with baseball games, sleepovers, date nights for parents- our life would be so busy that I would never have time to actually get to know my own kids.
This summer, the summer when we are not moving anywhere, our kids are also not going to summer camps, and we haven’t even planned a big family vacation. This summer we are having a “Summer Camp At Home”, we have set rules for activities like reading and TV and list of fun activities kids want to learn and do. I will keep you posted how it goes – because after all, while the kids are on summer vacation, I will be running business as usual while organizing all the summer fun for the kids.
Ask me after two months if this was a good idea.
