Click here for some great mommmy and baby freebies from BabiesOnline.com

Main Page Site Index Getting Pregnant Pregnancy Parenting Pregnancy and Parenting Journals Fertility Nutrition Pregnant Moms Morning Sickness Women's Health Child Health	Juggling with One Hand Tied We've finally made it! The move we have been planning for over two years, and talking about since before Tamsin was even conceived, has been made. We are back in our native (for Graham) Australia (my adopted homeland since the age of seven). Our lives are in chaos, our children are disoriented, and although we speak the same language we have no idea how anything runs here any more. Home sweet home! If anyone were to ask my advice about long haul travel with a two and a five year old, I think my answer at the moment would be, DON'T!!! No, really, it was hard but many worthwhile things in life are, aren't they. If anyone out there has a foolproof method of sending children to sleep on airplanes, I want to hear it (if it's legal. No, wait, even if it isn't legal!) Tamsin did eventually go to sleep after about nine hours flying time, but Angus waited until the wheels hit the runway in Singapore before passing out. He didn't take kindly to being shaken awake a few minutes later. We didn't have much fun for a while. Our stopover in Singapore was great fun for three of us. Tamsin spent the time sulking and saying that it smelt. (Which it does, but exotically and interestingly). We had a lot of 'I don't want to go to Australia'. We tried ignoring it, we tried jollying her along. Angus had a delightful time, new things to see, new food to eat, and we were able to introduce him to a second cousin of his own age who had toys to play with! Our first ten days in the country were spent with Graham's parents. Graham, unfortunately, had to spend half his time in Melbourne sorting things out, so I had to cope with stressed-out, jet-lagged children without him, worrying that they were annoying my frail and elderly father-in-law. (Apparently when we eventually left, he pined - he'd enjoyed the chaos of the children after all!) We're now in a lovely house, renting from a friend with hopes of buying it eventually. It's all we could want, comfortable and homely, near shops and public transport, in a nice neighborhood. It's also crammed to overflowing with still-packed book boxes, and unpacked possessions of every other description. The kids are supposed to keep their toys in the playroom - nice idea, but the playroom is where the book boxes are at the moment. Consequently their rooms and the living room are cluttered with a myriad of small, foot-injuring items that make it impossible to vacuum the floor. (What a pity). Tamsin has started at an excellent school and seems to be settling down. Angus is happy being at home with me. We do a couple of activities during the week and fill in the rest of the time in the way you do with kids that age. Graham has a good job that looks set to give him good prospects in the year to come. Yet I feel as though I spend my time juggling with one hand tied behind my back. The house is in chaos and I can't unpack any more without Graham because I don't know where to put anything. He is working his usual long hours and is away in Sydney a couple of days every week. I spend my days trying to find out how to do the normal, everyday things that people take for granted - how the healthcare system works, how to pay for public transport tickets, where to buy things, what brands to substitute for the English brands I have got used to. I'm still waiting for a piece of plastic to activate my bank account. We only got our health insurance details through yesterday after signing up five weeks ago. I can't get Angus into kindergarten next year, he has to go on a waiting list. I could go on and on. I wanted to come back to Australia, but in some ways life was easier in England because I had got to know the system and I could walk into a shop and buy the right things without having to think about it. And I have to keep the children on an even keel. Angus is settling down now, after weeks of antisocial behavior, and all he needs now is stability. Tamsin needs a lot more work. She had done a brilliant job of settling into her new school, and has tried very hard to assimilate. But she misses her old friends badly, and we get tears at school from time to time. The first time Graham went to Sydney she was uncharacteristically upset, surprisingly so considering that he's been away about one night a week ever since she born. She says that she'd rather be in England, though it's OK here. She enjoys the things that go on at school, she enjoys the activities we do at weekends, which are full of organizing ourselves and catching up with friends and family. But when she stops and thinks about it, she is homesick, understandably so. So I never feel that I can be anything less than jolly about everything in front of her. I know things will improve for her, and that we will unpack and put away things and it will be possible to walk through the house without treading on too many pieces of Lego. (Well, maybe not!) But in the meantime I am frantically juggling with one hand tied behind my back. Judy Edmonds was born in England, grew up in Australia and is married to Graham Peters, a fifth-generation Australian. From 1990-1999 they lived in England - it was meant to be a two year working holiday but it took on a life of its own. They returned to Australia in May 1999, and are enjoying readjusting. Judy worked as an academic librarian until the birth of Tamsin in 1993, and since then has been a full-time mother to her and to Angus, born 1996. She is now embarking on a new career as a freelance journalist. Her writing can be found all over the Internet now, and she is the owner/editor of an Australian parenting EZine, Chloe & Jack.