BEING A STAY AT HOME MOM IN SEYCHELLES

I met my husband on an island in Thailand where we were both working. Then we moved to the island of Gran Canaria, and I became pregnant. I was working there as a teacher and my husband was as well…then we decided that we wanted to shift our focus completely on our family as this was a really special time, so we finished our contracts and went home to Canada to have our first born. I was lucky that I was a trained yoga teacher and started teaching prenatal yoga throughout my pregnancy and continued to do so after my daughter was born.

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During this time, we were living at home with family and whilst it was a really special time being surrounded by the closest people to us, with our newborn, we missed the adventures we were having overseas. Plus, my husband being British meant he could not work in Canada and were waiting the approval of his visa which takes a year at least.

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Therefore, we moved back to the U.K. where legally I couldn’t work. In the end it didn’t matter as I knew I wanted to be there for my daughter and that no one else could be a better carer for her than myself. So, I never got any maternity care or coverage as in Canada I hadn’t lived there long enough to tap into that and obviously in the UK I couldn’t claim anything either.

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Our lives were financially strapped, but we enjoyed our simple lifestyle. We started connecting with nearby friends and loved going for big walks. A big thing was missing for us in England which was the sunshine, as mentioned we had been in Gran Canaria and we had met in Thailand, so we started looking for opportunities abroad. We ended up living in Cyprus for 2 years and as soon as we moved, I found out I was pregnant again. At this time, I was about to pursue offering yoga retreats in Cyprus but my morning sickness was pretty severe and I was exhausted. I’m so glad in the end as it gave me this special time with my eldest daughter and she was still only 2 years old so I know if I ever wanted to pursue offering retreats, there is still time when they are older.

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Once I had my baby (which in itself is a whole other story as birthing in a natural ways in Cyprus is not easy!)… we were creating a community of like-minded parents in Cyprus. I found myself realizing more and more how important it was that I continue to support my children by staying at home. We attended a few activities ran through Waldorf schools or various school style related activites, and while it was so nice for us to meet other parents and children, we realized that the best situation for us was to unschool/wordschool. We enjoyed travelling from Cyprus and world schooling our children through both our lives in Cyprus and through traveling to seven new countries (Austria, Turkey, Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia and Hungry we visited while living there, click below to read about our 8 week backpacking trip with our kids 1.5 years and 3 years old through 5 countries).

Through all of our adventures, big or small, I constantly found myself saying, how can traditional schooling even compare? I was a teacher so I know exactly what a day at school looks like and I’ve taught in several countries at different types of schools. I do believe there are some wonderful schools out there, and maybe one day I will send my daughters to school, but for now, we’re so happy with how we are raising them. Free to be! Their days are not empty or boring, they are free to do as they wish when they like. While there was a small community of homeschoolers in Cyprus it was very small, and we missed our more tropical lives from island living in Thailand. Don’t get me wrong, I love olive trees, old architecture and yes admittedly, even fresh halloumi on our doorstep, but it was time for a change and to simplify our lives even more.

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While we were backpacking we got asked to come to Mahe and this was something we couldn’t turn down as it reminded us of that even more free style life we missed, away from so much materialism and consumerism. So why not live on another island together after living on Samui, Gran Canaria, U.K., Cyprus and now Mahe? Perhaps I should do a blog just on living on islands. Living here with my girls for me ticks the boxes of what we need right now in our lives.

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Simple living. Aside from the busy traffic in Victoria we just get to experience life without all the distractions. We wake up, we appreciate the colours right before our eyes, we meditate, do yoga, cook ayurvedic inspired breakfasts (click here to find out about ayurvedic breakfast we enjoy), we spend the morning at any beach before the sun gets too intense, we climb trees, drink foraged coconuts, picnic, paint, build, read, dream and repeat. So for us we love unschooling here at this time in our lives while the children are very young. We do miss having access to things like libraries, museums and art galleries, however it’s ok for us to live this way for now and we know we can access cultural experiences like this through our travels. If you’re interested in a day in the life check out this blog: