First I would like to apologize if my last post about the preschool stuff sounded too whiny or offended anyone. Totally not intended! I think preschool can be a wonderful thing and most kids probably benefit greatly from it. I was just wondering in my own particular circumstance if it's absolutely 100% necessary to put my kids in preschool if I don't really want to. I don't want to get stuck into the 'everyone's doing it' mentality and put my kids there only for that reason. Just wanted to hear other people's opinions (both Finnish and American), so thank you for sharing! I think we will keep our kids at home for now and I will use the money saved to buy all sorts of fun arts and crafts stuff to do at home. Yay, shopping! Shopping makes mommy happy...and happy moms make happy kids, right? :)
Because most of you have heard from me about how happy I am and how much I'm loving life here, here are the more positive aspects of the culture shock....
Variety rocks
I LOVE the variety in the shops here in the US. There is so much fun stuff, so much colorful stuff. Everything is just fun. Bathtub crayons, crafty stuff, baking stuff. Plus things are quite a bit cheaper than in Finland, so I feel like I can buy a lot more stuff (for the kids, for example :)) without spending more.
Fun, fun, and more fun
The amount of activities for kids and stay-at-home moms is amazing. The kids' hobbies are one of the few things that are more expensive here than in Finland, but they are also extremely fun and the kids really enjoy them. We have soccer for all the kids, a Kindermusik class, Finnish School, and a mom's club/playgroup with speakers once a month. We've also made a few friends and meet up with them for shopping or playdates. We are super busy and it's a huge change from our calm stay-at-home life in Finland...but we like it!
Bigger (not always better, but sometimes it's useful!)
Everything is so much bigger here than in Finland. The houses, wow! The cars. Cartons and packages of food. Shampoo containers. I had to go to the store almost every day in Finland because our fridge was so small, and the packages of food were so small. Plus, our apartment was so small that I didn't have room to really store 'extras'. Now I only have to go to the grocery store about once a week here. It's great! The space we have to organize (and hide!) all of our stuff and the space for the kids to play in makes our house a really nice and happy place to be. I feel so happy to finally live in a place that feels like a real home.
Family
I can call and text my family anytime I want without having to worry about the 9-hour time difference. I talk to my mom several times a week for free. I get to go and visit my new niece and nephew because it's only a one-hour flight from here. Several relatives can come for the girls' birthday party and several more will probably come and visit us this summer. I love being a hostess and I love the fact that we are going to have visitors!
Life is just easier
My life seems way easier than in Finland. I guess I didn't know how hard it was until it got easier. :) I can drive everywhere with the kids and take them to fun places without too much hassle. I don't need to bundle 3 little kids up in layers and layers of outdoor gear to go outside since we don't even have to go outside to get to our car. I don't need to use a stroller anymore because there are shopping carts in most stores. Our grocery store even has a cart that fits 3 kids (2 up on top and one down below in the car). The kids are happy and content to be at home as well because of the amount of space they have to play. We also have a backyard where they can play if the weather is nice. It's great!
So, besides some issues that will take some time to get adjusted to (the health care and education systems for example), we are extremely happy that we made the decision to move here. All of that hard work was totally worth the effort. :)
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| Don't they look happy? |
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