Australia

For my English speaking friends …

After the storm passed last night (meaning the kids were finally asleep) we sat with friends on the balcony drinking coffee and smoking some illegal substances. All the sudden, my husband said (like he does almost everyday), “Let’s move to Australia,” and we all started making plans (the kind you make after smoking some illegal substances) .

I don’t know why, but Australia became this fantasy place where we barely work, make lots of money and basically just enjoy life.

But when I really think about it, what would life really be like? To be so far away from family and friends homesick and have no help with the kids? How could we all manage a new language, new schools and no playdates? That means, that all I’m really left with is Tim Tams, Aborigines, kangaroos and many people around me that there’s no way in hell I would ever understand (unless they speak very very very slow and in American accent). The fantasy began to look less enticing and more like a nightmare.

Everyone knows a person that knows those “cool parents” that travel for a year to India with four kids ( two on the back and two in a special rack). These parents sleep in tents, drive in 50 year-old caravans and make soups and food on the road from animals they hunt themselves (not saying roadkill although I'm tempted). They bathe in rivers and do laundry in puddles. They teach their children math and Spanish all by themselves and sing kumbaya on their way to a Tibetan village while hiking on a cloudy mountain.

Well . . .

I HATE THEM.

I also don’t buy it. The parents I know love their children, but like them best when they are sleeping. If you are a parent, you must be familiar with this scenario:

After struggling for at least an hour to get your children into bed, and another half hour to get them to actually sleep, you silently top tow to their bedroom and just watch the miracle of your “sleeping children.” You feel so happy and content at this sight, cause it means you made it through another day.

So what do you think? Do kids sleep more in Australia? Because if so, this is something that seems like a fantasy I can work with . . .

(BTW - Thank you Tamar for your tips (-:)