The great benefits of being a stay-at-home mum

Before we moved to Scotland we decided I would stay at home this year to ease the transition to a new life in an English-speaking country. This turned out to be a great arrangement for all of us.

Getting the family settled in

In the first months I spent a lot of time getting us organised in a new community and a new country - I was amazed at how much time I spent on these activities.

However, after the first week at school, I was told that I no longer needed to stay at school with my youngest son. In fact, it would be better for my son and the other children if I did not tag along any more, as this would improve interaction between the children. Hint taken.

Indulging in my hobbies

I continued to spend a lot of time helping the boys with their English and follow-up on school-work, but as one thing after the other was sorted, I had more time to indulge in hobbies.

I soon got into a routine where I started most mornings by walking the boys to school, jogging for 30-45 minutes and then doing 30 minutes of strength training at Curves. Even though exercising was my main hobby, I also did some volunteer work at school, took piano lessons and joined a couple of drawing classes.

I also went to the library a lot and ended up reading around 60 books during our stay in Scotland. This included audio books that I listened to while I was on the go or doing other things. In addition to these books I also read a lot of books with the children and we also listened to many audio books with them. Among our favourite books were Scottish history books for children and we learned a lot of Scottish history during our stay in Scotland.

Great benefits for the whole family

Among the benefits of me being a stay-at-home mum was that:

• We hardly ever had to go shopping or run errands on the weekends or evenings - this was taken care of by me during daytime
• I would walk the children to school and pick them up after school, help them settle in, follow up on homework, take them to the doctor or dentist as needed, stay at home with them if they were ill etc.
• The weekends and evenings were mostly free of house work. We sometimes did some housework together because it's not something I'm very fond of and I felt the pain should be shared, at least a little
• I planned our trips around Scotland during the day, so Friday after my husband finished work we could all set off for a new adventure where everything had been planned in advance
• I could spend hours socialising with my new friends during the day, so most evenings I was with my family
  
• I exercised more than I normally do, which meant I became stronger, fitter and happier
• I indulged in my hobbies during the day, so as soon as the children were home from school I was available for them
• I did management training and a project management certification course without it interfering with ongoing projects at work
• No stress at work meant I was more patient with my family and my overall mood was better. I also slept much more than I normally do, which also was a positive contribution to my mood. 

Back to working full time

Tomorrow it's back to sleep deprivation, yelling at the kids because I'm tired and stressed out from work (and then feeling lousy for doing it), and general frustration over having too little time to do all the things I want to do.

I know that somehow we will all get through it all, I will go back to a job I love and the kids will still grow up to be good human beings, despite their imperfect mum. And we will all have our memories of a year with much less stress than usual.