Why Stay at Home?

Cynthia´s Story

I remember my childhood under the coconut palms in Papua New Guinea. I remember the strong pong of eucalypts, running through the bush in Tasmania.

I remember graduating from university, gathering up my gown and striding proudly and assuredly upon a stage to receive my law degree… So, what happened next? I’m 42 years old now and I have no idea how time passed so quickly.

Of course, the fact is that I eventually got married after a lot more gallivanting around the globe and collecting many more memorable experiences. Then we had children. I became a parent.

I suppose to most people that have experienced this reality bending phenomenon, it is almost self explanatory to make the comment, “I had kids”. Maybe not for you? But for me, it was like I became so fully absorbed in the task of keeping my child alive, my family fed, my home kept that I completely forgot about everything else that mattered hereto. Where did Cynthia go? No idea… Or more about that later…

Anyhow, the decision to stay at home felt right. I guess first of all, it was only necessary, since, after all, I was really in no state to be fighting someone else’s legal battle, pursuing a high-flying career when my boobs were leaking; my child was fretting at the thought of being in a car longer than 10 minutes at a time, and my nerves were so completely shattered by the responsibility of this new life…

I had felt this new situation was my only responsibility and mentally, had no other space for almost anything else. I found out later, that this is actually common for women to feel; new parenthood, and especially a complicated pregnancy and birth can trigger a very highly strung mother. I was a ‘Tiger Mother’ and I was going to protect my young no matter what…

Also, my husband and I looked at the price of putting our child into Day Care, as child care is called in Australia and were appalled at the fact that it was almost the same cost as the salary of one person. And, I would be taking care of our child, not someone else.

Yes, things did settle down eventually. But then we found ourselves going in for round two, then three and then to our great surprise, FOUR!

So, nearly 15 years later even though the time feels like it has flown by I am going to tell you about some of the things that happened - particularly as pertains to being a parent, from Australia (and other places), who chose to stay at home to bring up our children, in Iceland.