Why I loved our first months in Australia

by Sarah Husselmann
(Sydney, NSW, Australia)

By Sarah Husselmann


It occurred to me recently that when I look back at our first few months in Australia I feel a certain amount of nostalgia about that time. Part of me feels sad that we won't have it again.

When you're in the midst of a moment it can seem like the most stressful, nerve wracking and tiring phase of your life, but once you’ve moved on and can look back with a clearer head you realise there were a number of positives too.

Given that I write a blog for mums moving to Australia, I'm sure you'll allow me a little child birth comparison. When you're in the midst of delivering a baby you would probably say (shout or scream) that you're never going to go through that again! However, once you're holding your baby and the natural (or chemical) painkillers have kicked in you start thinking about next time. Even though you might have been through significant trauma you're unlikely to say out right that you're never doing it again.

Comparing the stress of moving to Aus with child birth is possibly taking it too far, but like child birth, and other of life's challenges, when you look back at the most intense moment involved in the process you have rose tinted glasses. Because you're not actually feeling the pain (emotionally or physically) it doesn't seem that bad.

Family relocation can be extremely stressful. During our initial months in Australia, I felt overwhelmed by all the decisions we had to make. As a stay at home mum, it was tough giving up my support network and friends back home. For most of our first year in Australia, I felt disconnected because I didn’t have people around me who knew I was more than ‘just a mum’.

Our first six months were the most challenging but nearly two years later I've realised that they were also an exciting and special time.

The things I loved about our first months in Australia

One of the first things that struck me during our first weeks in Australia is that I started ‘seeing’ my children for the first time in ages. For months, my emotions had been caught up with planning the move, finishing work and study commitments, and saying goodbye to family and friends. Sure, I'd provided for the children and thought I was giving them plenty of time, but my head was elsewhere.


I remember pushing the kids on swings at a playground in Sydney, talking about nothing in particular, and thinking, “Wow, I haven't done this in months!” That moment taught me something and although we still had plenty of stress to come, finding work and a permanent rental property, we made the most of spending time with the kids because we didn't know when we'd have such unstructured time again.

The other emotions that I experienced during our first months in Aus were excitement and anticipation. We were entering the unknown. We were at the start of our adventure and anything was possible. After years of the same routine, it was uplifting to feel that we were reinventing ourselves and our family life.

The adventure isn't over

Nearly two years later we've created a happy life for ourselves in Australia.

Sometimes it feels like we're right back where we started: we constantly juggle work and family life, there never seems to be enough hours in the day, and we still wish we earned more and paid less for our house \ car \ holidays. However, we're living these standard family struggles in a beautiful location, next to the beach (that was our dream), in a mostly better climate, with access to many services (for the kids and us) that are superior to what we had before. We have also been through a journey that has taught us a lot about ourselves and made us a stronger family unit.

What's more, we're still learning and discovering. Every now and then we discover something new about Australia and we experience something of those initial months. The settling in is done but the adventure isn't over.

Sarah Husselmann is the author of Mum's gone 2 Aus a blog providing help for mums moving to, and visiting, Australia.