Parenting and Property

At some point every day I catch myself wishing that we owned a house. This issue has been a constant consideration ever since my husband and I finally decided to leave the academic life and pursue professional careers in the private sector 5 years ago. We saw this as our chance to settle down start a family AND perhaps one day own our own home.

Unfortunately the AND in that last statement turned into an OR. Since we both have an aversion to going into debt which is a given these days for owning property. We'd just gotten out of years of graduate school and for the first time in our lives were completely debt free and unwilling to get back into it so soon. And so we decided to start a family first as age (we were both approaching 30) was starting to become a factor.

A handsome little man and a curly haired little girl completed our family and providing for their happiness and wellbeing has seriously hampered our ability to set aside large sums of money towards owning property.

And yet, this extra time has provide us opportunity to refine our taste and expectations from home ownership as well as allowed us to put together a realistic plan to someday own our eventual family home knowing full well that we will be able to afford the repayments necessary. And all this with one simple little trick.

My husband and I have researched the area we would like to live in to get an understanding of the prices to expect in the area. We also know what kind of house we would like to build in the area so the total expense was easy to estimate.

We then worked out how much a mortgage would cost us each month and the amount of money we needed for a downpayment. From then onwards, every single month we "paid" that mortgage repayment into a savings account to make sure that we could easily manage the amount without running into too much financial stress. It wasn't wasn't easy at first. We regularly overstretched our budget and it took a while for us to reach that level of financial maturity and earnings to comfortably save and live the lifestyle we wanted. But at least we did it all with self imposed restrictions and didn't have the banks hounding us for cash. And whenever emergency struck (like when the car died) we didn't have to stress about not making our repayments.

Every month that savings account grows for our deposit (target at 20% of the cost of the house and land to avoid having to pay mortgage insurance) and we get disciplined about how much money we can actually spend.

Here's the bonus, all that time we're actually living in the neighborhood of our choice because renting is significantly lower than paying off a mortgage in the area. We are both no more than 10-20 mins from work and a short drive to the city and great restaurants.

In that way I'm glad that choosing parenthood before property has given us the chance to be more mature about our finances rather than rushing headlong into property ownership when we were obviously not ready for it. And for our family at least that has been the right way forward.

The Incapacitated Mum: Hand Foot and Mouth Disease

I've just gotten over the most pain filled week of my life so far. By day 4 I was wishing that I was in Labour because it would have hurt less. And on top of all that I wasn't even struck down with a respectful debilitating ailment like Chicken Pox or Measles or Plague... no I had what all the medical sites classed as "mild", "non serious" and "common childhood illness" Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. With descriptions like that, how bad could it be right? WRONG! Pull up a blanket kiddies... it's horror story time.

The Crafty Mum: T Shirt Rug

Have a heap of old shirts you don't want to add to the landfill? Upcycle them? There are heaps of ideas. Here's one:

The Discerning Mum: Kmart Endless Days of Play and Giveaway

What an amazing morning I've had. Yesterday I was fortunate enough to receive an invite to Kmart's new toy launch and media event. Luckily it was today (Thursday) because it is the one day I have free to do stuff like this. And the best part is that I get to share some of the booty with you guys!

The 1337 Grandma: Home Made baby sleeping bags

This blog has been neglected for a couple of weeks. The cause of this absence is that the 1337 Grandma came all the way from Singapore to stay for a month to spend time with her grandson (and as a side note bonus... with hubby and myself).

I'm very grateful for the times when mum comes to stay. She's obviously got her own stuff going on as well as another grandson who she's the weekday carer of but her coming over means that hubby and I have another pair of hands around the house to help catch the things that slip through the cracks (like making dinner, and finding time to have a shower and making sure that the sink doesn't get full before doing the dishes.. etc)

The Cooking Mum: Meatloaf Cupcakes

Food should be fun. Both to look at and to eat. Most days I don't have a lot of time to make fun foods but I managed to get half a day to myself recently and decided to try an idea that I've been toying with for a while after seeing a similar idea on Food Network's Sugar High with Duff Goldman.

Meatloaf cupcakes!!!

The Opinionated Mum: Meta Reviewing

First, let me apologize for my long absence. Our little family has been playing host to The Little Man's Auntie J who came to visit over Easter. So we turned tourists and went sightseeing around Southern Victoria and had a fantastic time out in the sunshine, eating chocolate, watching penguins, tasting wine and shopping. 

In addition to that, I've been getting my writing fix from this site I found a couple of weeks ago. 

http://www.womo.com.au/

The Cooking Mum: Leftover Quiche

When cooking for a toddler it is very hard to figure out how much he or she is going to consume for that meal. Some days the little man picks at his food for a few mins before seeing how many times he can hit the dog with carefully aimed spoonfuls of whatever I've slaved in the kitchen to make for him.

For the last few days, The Little Man has been going through, what we think (hope), is a growth spurt. He's eating everything and anything you put in front of him. And when he's done he looks up with those big brown serious eyes and says "More, more, more, more?" (currently his favorite and most reliable word-meaning association).

So this weekend I've made some little snack sized quiches to tide him over between meals so he's not filling up on baby crackers and bananas.

The Gamer Mum: Character Selection in MMORPGs

Its been so long since I last made a gamer reference that I feel like I'm letting the side down. Of late, I've been playing Guild Wars 2 for about an hour or so some nights when The Little Man goes to bed. It's my wind down-I-don't-want-to-do-housework time of day. Previously, we've played Lord of the Rings Online, Minecraft, Assasins Creed (hubby, not me I get motion sick with all that jumping) and Portal 1 & 2. And as mentioned in my first post, we met on World of Warcraft.

The Steady Mum: Baby improved balance

The Little Man and I went out for lunch together last week. Nothing too fancy, we were just suffering from a little bit of cabin fever and decided to cycle to the nearby shopping center to grab something at the food court. On these occasions, I tend to get food which I can share with The Little Man, so no fast food or spicy stuff. We settled on some Vietnamese beef noodle soup.

After paying the guy at the counter he asked if I needed any help with the tray. I said I should be alright and picked up the tray. He shook his head and said "Mothers are amazing." I smiled back at him but in my head I was thinking "Well DUH.... that's obvious, what's your point?"

The Winning Mum: Nappy Bag Giveaway

So 11 likes on the facebook page so far. So I took a snapshot of the facebook gadget on the blog page. It should be 11 but I realized that the one that was missing in the gadget was my Mum so it's alright. 

Went to Random.org and generated a number. Like so:

Fortunately the number didn't come up as 1 or 4 or I'd have to reroll.

So now I just have to congratulate Emma G. Now you don't have to go buy one of your own. :-) look out for a facebook message from me. 

The Working Mum and Breastfeeding

I love my job. It's crazy, the hours are long, the pay could be better, and it is way too stressful and demanding. For a bit of a relaxing change of pace, I go to work :-)

Fortunately, I work for a very understanding company who genuinely want me to continue working for them and aren't just grudgingly obeying federal regulation which prevents them from firing me just because I want flexible working arrangements.

When The Little Man was 6 months old, I went back to work 2 days a week, Hubby worked 3 days a week, and between us we managed without Daycare. At 11 months, The Little Man Started Daycare once a week (That was all we could get because our daycare had a waiting list a mile long). Hubby went back to full time and I dropped to working the one day that The Little Man was in daycare. These days, I've gone back to work 2 days a week (except when my mother flies into town to visit [her grandson]). 

During those visits, I  get to go to work 5 days a week and The Little Man spends 2 days in daycare, with the rest covered by his grandmother. This gradual shift back to work has resulted in two things: 

1.)   My Mum's visiting dates are now the subject of business strategy meetings; and

2.)   I've needed to work out my own strategies around breastfeeding

Matters of Monetary Maternity

When we found out that we were going to have a baby I, like most people, needed to mentally prepare for a huge dip in our discretionary income and thought we'd be living on toast and porridge. This was actually something the hubby and I have been through while trying to survive university. And as fun as those times were, we agreed never to go there again. 

One of the benefits of living through times of monetary leanness is that one gets a teensy bit fanatical about budget (spreadsheets, savings graphs, etc), and I've found that the arrival of our Little Man has not really broken the budget. 

We've done this just by being conscious of a few things:

Parent Rooms

One of the perks of becoming a parent is the ability to use the exclusive facility of the Parent Room (A.K.A Baby Change Rooms). To the uninitiated, Parent Rooms are purpose built toilet facilities catered especially for families. This may include (but is not limited to) a Microwave, Change Tables, Private Nursing Rooms, Older kids Play area, large sinks (for washing up a particularly messy poo*) and even a extra large toilet cubicle which may comfortable fit a family of 5 if necessary.

*Yes I said it! One gets very comfortable talking about Poo when one becomes a parent.

Coded, Constructed and CONTEST!

As you can probably tell I have been doing some major renovating on this site. This is the first time since The Little Man was born that I've had to do any kind of coding so I'm very glad that, that part of my brain still works (part of the shrinking minority I'm pretty sure)

Quick rundown of the changes and for details of my first giveaway:

The Nappy Bag

There are days I flip between being a consumer and a minimalist. Usually the longer I've been using something the more streamlined it becomes. For example, it used to take me about 3 days and the limit of the baggage allowance to pack for a week long trip but now I can put together everything needed for a family of 3 in a single suitcase,in an hour before we have to leave for the airport. Not skill just practice.

This has been the case for our nappy bag as well. Back when we were newbie parents, the consumer giants (i.e. Baby shops and TV) convinced us that we absolutely needed a nappy bag. Hubby was adamant that if he was ever expected to carry the nappy bag that it was not going to be some flowery pink monstrosity. So together we went out and selected the Ryco messenger bag, in a manly black colour.

Product Review: The Yepp Mini

The Yepp Mini is a children's bicycle seat. But unlike other bike seats you may have seen around the child is in front of the rider rather than sitting on the back. The seat is attached to the handlebar stem and is made out of the same flexiable yet strong material that Crocs shoes are made out of. The Yepp Mini is suitable for children from 9 months of age and able to sit up by themselves and comes in some pretty cool colours. They also make a heap of accessories for it tho I haven't really seen the need for getting any of them... yet.*

YouTube: Not just for cute kitties.

In my pocket I have a device that can access all information known to man, and I use it to look at funny pictures of cats.

One of the wonderful things about being alive today is the wealth of information out there available at your fingertips. I mean think about it. There used to be a time where if you didn't know something... you either had to find someone who knew it to teach you or trudge yourself to a library to find a book which would tell you. Valuable minutes if not hours or years might be spent in not knowing that you didn't know something. *oh the humanity*

Travelling with Baby Tip 3: The Flight

The helplessness, the anxiety, the no-where-to-go. I've never been claustrophobic but I think I can respect people who feel that way when I'm praying that everything goes alright.

Travelling with Baby Tip 2: Packing

Having traveled so often I've gotten pretty good at avoiding underpacking/overpacking problems for myself. When I first moved over to Australia 10 years ago the contents of my suitcase included my hangers, a printer and an iron. I felt pretty silly when I arrived here and realized that these items could be purchased from K-mart for less money than I would have paid to not have to lug all that stuff to and from the airport. So if I'm travelling alone I only really stress about Passport, Tickets and Money. Anything else I forgot can be purchased if necessary.